e-learning
H. Pourmehdi Ghaemmaghami; A. Khaki Ghasr
Abstract
Background and Objectives: All academic fields, including architecture, were taught online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Architectural design studios were the most challenging courses offered online among all the architectural courses. The benefits and disadvantages of teaching in online design studios ...
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Background and Objectives: All academic fields, including architecture, were taught online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Architectural design studios were the most challenging courses offered online among all the architectural courses. The benefits and disadvantages of teaching in online design studios have been studied through research on practitioner feedback. The current study focuses on the advantages of online studios and emphasizes the importance of verbal representation in the architectural design process. As verbal representation is utilized in the design process, with verbal description being one of its tools, the question arises: Is it feasible to enhance the verbal representation skills of architecture students, despite the limitations in content transmission and the challenges encountered during online studio delivery?Materials and Methods: The research methodology is qualitative. It is based on a systematic literature review and case study in which authors have used an autoethnography approach, sharing their experiences as online instructors during the COVID-19 crisis. The case study was carried out via thematic analysis supported by coding employing tactics including observations, memos, self-evaluation of students, and questionnaires. The research took place at Shahid Beheshti University's Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning for five academic semesters (2019-2022). The statistical population included 147 students (111 undergrads and 36 graduates). Findings: The results demonstrate that, due to the constraints of material sharing compared to face-to-face studios, architectural design online studios rely primarily on listening senses and linguistic skills. The results show an improvement in students' verbal representation (both oral and written), which varies depending on the studios. In online studios, 86% of students reported that their writing ability had improved, and 73% reported that their oral representation had improved. It is worth noting that students in online studios rate verbal representation in written format as the second most improved skill out of six. As a result, the level of usage and acceptability of written and oral representation in the creative process in online studios has not been consistent, and it may alter for various reasons. Some key points that make it successful include the instructor's preference for employing verbal description and representation in the studio, the student's potential in verbal description, the theme of the design studio, and where we are in the design process.Conclusions: Online architectural design studios provide students with the chance to improve their verbal representation skills. Additionally, one of the bases of delivering online studios is the ability to express ideas clearly via language, which also plays a compensating role during the design process in maintaining the studios' quality. Use of this feature in hybrid, online, or face-to-face studios could be part of future plans. The valuable tasks to be carried out should be defined and experienced in this context so that they can be implemented at the beginning, middle, or end of the design process. The practice of expressing the scenario, defining the design problem, writing the design statement, preparing sessions for reading descriptions from renowned authors' texts, as well as the sessions for critiquing the works of students and architects in the online studios in tutorial and judgment sessions, can be listed among them.
Educational Technology - Public education
R. Khany; M, Boghayeri
Abstract
Using web 2.0 tools in education in general and language learning in particular for creating an active learning environment is getting momentum these days. With all these, however, and despite the wide range of available web 2 tools, these tools have not been used properly to improve language learning ...
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Using web 2.0 tools in education in general and language learning in particular for creating an active learning environment is getting momentum these days. With all these, however, and despite the wide range of available web 2 tools, these tools have not been used properly to improve language learning and teaching in the Iranian context. Accordingly, this study investigates the efficacy of web 2 tools for language learning in the western city of Ilam, Iran. To this end, the effect of some web 2 tools, such as blogs, wikis, e-mail service, social networks, podcasts and Podcast’s on four different language- speaking, listening, writing, and reading comprehension was investigated. The study was conducted in a language institute in Ilam on 71 language learners who were assigned to elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels and were divided into experimental and control groups. Learners in the experimental group were taught English with web 2 tools for two months, while the control group was taught through the classical teaching methods currently used in the country. The results showed the effectiveness of applying web 2 tools on intermediate and advanced levels, while the elementary level did not show any significant progress. Regarding the skills, the tools examined were found to have more positive effect on reading, writing, and listening skills
