Supporting students’ self-directed experiences of studio learning in Communication Design: The co-creation of a participatory methods process model

Critical Analysis

Communal spaces offer unique opportunities to study details of culture, power, partnership, the impact of physicality, and so-on; shared educational spaces, like classrooms and studios, provide a chance for researchers to view how all of these qualities relate to teaching and learning. Design studio is unique in that students often have unlimited and uncontrolled access, dedicated learning space, and a large degree of freedom to control and manage the space. Marshalsey and Sclater study this unique space in order to understand students’ experiences in studio, and to create and test unique participatory-design methods for future researchers to use in similar studio contexts.

The researchers gathered data in a highly participatory and iterative format; the mechanics are difficult to discern, but the overarching philosophy was to involve students in the creation of the research interventions, to evaluate their efficacy and findings with the students, and to iterate on the entire project plan with students as well. This led to the creation and experimentation with many data-gathering methods, all gathered under the umbrella of PAR—“research in communities that is directly participatory and active.”

These methods include Sound drawing, Sonic mapping, Logo drawing, GoPro filming, and Research rug and Manifesto. All make up a methods process model, or MPM. The authors don’t indicate if any of these methods were more useful or valuable than others, but particularly notable is the use of student-led filming. GoPro filming is named as a method, and Snapchat is described as the platform for sharing the user-generated content. The authors indicate that using a familiar social media platform “enabled the participants to voice their instant and momentary studio experiences from their own, empowered view” (citing Delgado, 2015). It developed “unbiased images and captured studio life as it happened around them and with them during the entire 8-week duration of the research activities.” These pictures were shared privately, through this platform, with only the lead researcher. The researchers note a disadvantage of this method is its sporadic use by the students.

The main contribution of this work is in its participatory nature. Studies with students often take the form of traditional psychological research, where students are “subjects” and are treated as data points towards a larger publishable finding. In a participatory design format, students are considered as professional equals to the researcher. Beyond the moral value of such a shift is the intimacy this then affords. Because students are deeply engaged with the research, they are likely to share more private, meaningful, and unique aspects of their studio experiences, and these are the experiences that can likely lead to improvements in studio pedagogy.

Research Value

The value of this work in informing my own research is that it:

• Provides a precedent for video-based data gathering in the studio, as well as the use of a popular social media platform as the data repository for student-generated content
• Indicates the value of having students engaged as co-designers or co-researchers in developing trust and encouraging sharing intimate situations and content