On the first day of moving classes online, Qiu Yong, president of Tsinghua University, attended an online class of the Department of Information Art & Design of the Academy of Arts & Design to interact with students. The teachers and students of the Department of Information Art & Design have worked actively to adapt to the changes. They are able to skillfully use various tools, mobilize various resources, come up with new ideas, and summarize valuable online teaching experience.
Interaction Design (1)
Instructor: Fu Zhiyong
Time: 8:00-11:30, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
Target students: 2017 undergraduates of the Department of Information Art & Design
Interaction design starts from understanding human behavior and culture, and focuses on creating new life, work, learning, and entertainment experience by designing methods of communication between people and people, people and products, and people and the environment. The purpose of this course is to help students understand the theory of interaction design, understand the relationship between human cognition/behavior and interactive interface, master the methods, models, and concepts of interaction design, and learn to be creative and apply what they have learned.
Associate Professor Fu in Class
This course focuses on the interaction between people and products as well as people and environment, with a special emphasis on hands-on practice. Professionals from the business world are often invited to share experiences and give students advice on their design projects. As for the reason for inviting these professionals, associate professor Fu said, "Students are particularly prone to make assumptions about future product design. Listening to these professionals' stories and advice can help them become more down-to-earth and more open-minded."
This course is divided into four parts: opportunity identification, opportunity understanding and scenario creation, conceptualization and prototype, and project exhibition and presentation. associate professor Fu has adjusted the prototyping requirements, using the "Ring of Experience" and "Service Blueprint" to demonstrate the experience and service process provided by the product; at the project exhibition and presentation phase, videos and handbooks are used to introduce product design and scenarios products are designed for.
The Gen Yun Shi Jie team led by alumni of the Tsinghua Academy of Arts & Design provided an IoT platform
Students are divided into groups. Cooperation among group members is encouraged. It is important for students to interact with group members through video conferencing applications. ZOOM allows users to create rooms and assign participants to the rooms but the instructor can only enter one room at one time. associate professor Fu has figured out a way to monitor the discussion of all groups simultaneously and provide guidance in real time – that is, logging in multiple Zoom accounts on different electronic devices such as iPad and Surface during group discussion. In order not to affect group discussions, he would turn down the volume of devices. When he wants to communicate with a group, he will enter the room of the group.
Multiple devices are used in one class
Student work exhibition
Yuanxi - Smart Personal Health Manager
Group members: Wang Jing, Li Xiangyang, and Lu Jiayi
Qihai Smart Home System
Group members: Xiang Chenzhuo, Niu Yixuan, Li Hanxuan, and Zheng Zhi
Topi-topia Inspiration Source System
Group members: He Yijia, Zhou Wenxin, and Peng Chengyang
Dear Polly – Smart Home Assistant for the Elderly
Group members: Kang Qiuyan, Yang Bolin, and Pan Juncheng
Techniques of Animation
Instructor: Chen Lei
Time: 8: 00-11: 30 Wednesday and Friday
Target student: 2018 undergraduates of the Department of Information Art & Design
Animation for Games
Instructor: Chen Lei
Time: Saturday all day
Target student: students pursuing two degrees
The course Techniques of Animation taught by associate professor Chen Lei aims to help students master skills to create action-packed animations. The instructor has relatively high requirements for videos displayed in the class. "Students need to see small differences between two frames of an animation or video." To this end, associate professor Chen will make screen recordings before the class and play them in different modes during the class so that the students can see the differences more clearly.
Video of Associate Professor Chen's class
As a course under a dual-degree program, Animation for Games plays down the drawing process and places more emphasis on software operation. Students need to closely follow the instructor when he is using the relevant software. In the classroom setting, students can operate on their laptops and follow the steps shown on the large screen. But taking an online class is more difficult, because there is only one screen and it is difficult for students to see the content and operate on the screen simultaneously. Associate professor Chen has figured out a way to solve this problem. He will make a video of how he operates the software and send the video to the students. His students can watch the video repeatedly.
Associate Professor Chen is reviewing homework assignments online
Talking about the advantages of online teaching, associate professor Chen said it was much more convenient for him to review homework assignments online. During an online class, associate professor Chen will ask the students to share the screen. He will take a screenshot of the students' screens and review the assignments displayed on the screen, which is more convenient than the traditional way of reviewing assignments. In terms of course preparation, associate professor Chen said that online teaching has an advantage over offline teaching in terms of depth and systematicity, because the content taught in online courses needs to be organized in a more systematic manner. Associate professor Chen said that he would experiment with more formats such as mutual evaluation of students in future to increase student participation.
Video Production
Instructor: Ma Sen
Time: 8:00-11:30, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
Target student: 2017 undergraduates of the Department of Information Art & Design
Image and Video
Instructor: Ma Sen
Time: 8:00-11:30, Monday through Friday
Target student: 2019 undergraduates of the Department of Information Art & Design
Long before the course started, assistant professor Ma and the class leader had worked together to try out different software and selected ZOOM and Yuketang in the end. ZOOM can make it more convenient to play large video files while Yuketang can be used to track student attendance and play PPT.
Video production is a core course for undergraduates. When teaching offline, assistant professor Ma will lead students to make short films together. In order to adapt to the changes in the teaching model, assistant professor Ma has changed the way he teaches (i.e., simultaneously presenting information and engaging students). Now, he would summarize key points when preparing for the lesson and provide additional information to explain the key points during class.
Assistant professor Ma said, "Teaching online is very convenient. I can display materials such as video clips and photos when I want. I don't need to worry about the condition of the networking equipment of the classroom." As far as homework is concerned, assistant professor Ma has taken into consideration of the safety of students during the epidemic and reduced the need for students to go out for filming. As for homework reviewing, assistant professor Ma said that it was not affected by the change in the teaching format. "Students are asked to share their screens and present their work, and I will comment and go deeper with topics after their presentation." Assistant professor Ma also works proactively to increase student engagement by finding ways to get students to share their ideas and encouraging them to ask questions or discussing real-life cases.
Assistant Professor Ma's online class
Assistant professor Ma believes that, although online teaching is very convenient, facing the screen and facing students are two totally different experiences. Overall, it is more difficult to engage students when teaching online than teaching in a face-to-face setting. Assistant professor Ma said he would ask the students to turn off their microphones during a class. He said, "When I was talking, they should keep quiet, but it made me feel that I was talking to the screen."
To ensure that the students' attention is focused on the class, assistant professor Ma would ask "Is it clear?" from time to time during an online class and ask students to repeat what he has just taught and then ask questions based on what the students have said. He wouldn't do this when teaching in an offline setting. It is an effective measure for online teaching.
Student Work Exhibition
Source: Department of Information Art & Design
Writer: Zhang Pengfei
Editor: Zhao Ruohan
Graphic Designer: Feng Jiaqi
