Author: Antonia Huber

– Social purpose of education

– read into Audre Lorde

– Help amplifying voices

– Dream of Utopia

– speculative futures, run scenarios

– create VEN diagram

As I embark a new chapter of my teaching career by shifting from synchronous residential to mainly asynchronous online lecturing, I am reflecting on how I will be distilling the vibrant feeling of the physical studio space in to the online sphere.

As Orr & Shreeve point out – ‘Ideally the studio is an active, busy and social place where learning is visible and open to discussion through active participation.’ (Orr & Shreeve, Signature Pedagogies in Art & Design, 2017) This sentiment implies the main aspects I encounter when being in the studio with a student cohort – it is loud, it is messy, it is fun with their visible exploration covering more and more wall space over time.

Padlet, Miro and Blackboard feel comparably sterile and quite, I will need to find ways to create a sense of human, warm sense of belonging within these platforms using each of those platform’s abilities to their best. Reading Lee Lewis’s and Stacey Leigh Ross’s article ‘Home sweet home: achieving belonging and engagement in online learning space’.

With simple tricks like uncovering course content together, playing studio music in the background and dancing on your chair during the limited synchronous studio might help to fill the online space with the much needed sense of human connection and collaboration.

For the asynchronous online spaces on the other hand it will be vital to include human imperfections and messiness to create an authentic feel where students are encourage (rather than scared) to try idea, are open and show vulnerability sharing draft ideas.

Also as there won’t be the real-time experience of coming into a studio, but an online space which is open 24/7 the space will shift from a physical presence to a mindset ‘Studio as a state of mind demands that learners engage in collaborative and community learning, using available spaces, whether physical, online, inside or outside the university. The shared experiences, linked by attitudes expected in the studio, of risk taking and experimentation, may be demonstrated by learners and teachers as an evolving space.‘(Orr & Shreeve, Signature Pedagogies in Art & Design, 2017)

My name is Antonia Huber, I am an Associate Lecturer at BA and MA Graphic Branding and Identity since 2016. Last month I also took on the role of Unit Lead for the new MA Graphic Design (online). Alongside being an educator I am running a one-woman eponymous graphic design studio.

I am hoping to see the PgCert as a space to reflect on my teaching practices which so far have mainly been acquired by colleagues and as I am going along.