Tsinghua University has recently launched an online conference, the magnitude of which has never been seen , where President Qiu Yong discussed how to cope with the COVID-19 outbreak with his counterparts of 14 prestigious universities worldwide . An agreement was made to postpone school opening but not education. The frontline faculty has been working hard to make that happen. One of them is Prof. Cai Jun from Tsinghua Academy of Arts & Design. He started to prepare for the online course "History and Theories of Design Studies" two weeks in advance, and has led the class successfully.
"History and Theories of Design Studies" is an optional course dedicated to the theories and evolution of design studies, open to postgraduate students and Ph.D. candidates of the Academy.
Enlarging the class to allow more audit students
The course is designed to accommodate only 15 students, but Prof. Cai opened it to audit students too, attracting a total of 75 registered students, according to the data from Lotus Pond – Rain Classroom, far more than the predetermined capacity.
Combining online communication and offline homework
Prof. Cai believes that to certain extent, the more you read, the better your comprehension is. Therefore he assigned extensive literature reading to his students and initiated discussions from time to time in class. It turned out that communication with students was more efficient online as it is free from distractions such as unwitting motions and expressions.
Reaching out to overseas students
The biggest surprise of the course came from two overseas Chinese students: Hu Bin, a Ph.D. candidate from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, and Xia Nan, an exchange student from Oslo School of Architecture and Design in Norway. They overcame the temporal and geographical barriers that restricted offline classes, shared brilliant cases, and broadened the academic horizon of the class, a bonus brought by the technology of distance education.
Inspiring cross-disciplinary response to the COVID-19 outbreak and the post-COVID world
The COVID-19 outbreak has presented to the world a complicated issue, which Prof. Cai found inspiring for design studies. He raised the question: how can design methodology help us respond to social issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic? To seek the answer, a web was charted covering ten dimensions ranging from public policy, the medical system, ecological conservation, traditional culture, international relations to social ethics. The students were grouped to focus on different dimensions, asked to apply specific research methodology to identify the underlying logic behind the host of information and data collected and provide insights into the trend of social development.
Prof. Cai believed that the COVID-19 outbreak would trigger worldwide reforms in many spheres, including society, politics, economy, culture and science & technology, in which design researchers should play an active part by applying their research tools and thinking from the whole-picture and long-term perspective.
"The students did much better than I could imagine. This course really played to the advantages of online education and opened up more space for cross-discipline learning and new perspectives ."
Students' Assignment
"Social Ethics" Group
Zhang Yufeng, Zou Jiapei, Yang Liu, Jia Yuzhou,
Liang Ruru, Wu Lingyu, and Jiang Jiabei;
"Traditional Culture" Group
Meng Tong, Lin Lin, Wang Kaitian, Ren He,
Weng Chengyu, Zhang Liuxin, and Zhao Zhiyi
Source: Department of Industrial Design
Writer: Bai Renfei
Editor: Zhao Ruohan
Graphic Designer: Feng Jiaqi
