Teaching future engineers remotely was doable, but it sure is more fun to be back teaching in the physical world.
In 2019, we just got back teaching Product Analyses and Redesign at DTU – Technical University of Denmark. Then a pandemic hit, and we were forced to teach remotely for two years.
We managed to make this work and – to our surprise – both milestone meetings on Zoom and online lectures with 60 students were possible in a world where we couldn’t meet face to face.
That being said: It’s a true pleasure to be back in the classroom with the students, where we can really feel the excitement, energy – and products.
Physical product in a virtual world
The course is basically 60 talented students learning about design processes and being creative in a systematic manner in order to generate ideas and concepts. And the best part: They are collaborating with real companies to redesign existing products.
This means the teaching benefits quite a lot from the physical world as well. Redesigning a physical product is a different experience when you have to do it on Zoom, and field research is just more fun when you actually get to meet and talk with potential users.
As it turns out, redesigning physical products simply benefits from physical presence.