October 2006 Volume 9 Number 4

(see Figure 2). The incorporation of technologies commonly used in online education into the traditional studio
can alter the interaction between the faculty and the student (or the master and apprentice). It is hypothesized that
blending technology with traditional instruction will impact typical studio problems of high student to faculty
ratio and high faculty workload.
The Modified Design Studio
Figure 2: Alternative Education Environments
This case study focused on an introductory course in Structural Systems for integration with online teaching
technologies. This course is offered at a large public state university and is offered to students in majors such as
building construction, engineering, interior design, landscape architecture, and packaging. After years of
teaching this course as a traditional design studio with multiple class sections, the authors sought to streamline
the teaching process. This course was a logical choice in which to add online technologies, as the students were
creating their projects with Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software. The existing six hours of studio times were
divided into a one-hour weekly lecture by the faculty and four hours of computer lab time supervised by
qualified teaching assistants. A course website was created to house course materials and the faculty members
were available outside of lecture via email and web-based conferencing.
The proposed model expands the educational opportunity to participate in the design critique to more students, in
more places, and in more ways than ever before. Blended learning is being used in various educational
environments outside architecture and design (Jonasson, 1997; Ravaglia, 2001). This form of mediated education
brings many benefits to the studio. One limitation is the need for both parties to be physically present in the same
location at the same time. The proposed model streamlines the interaction loop by incorporating technology in
the teaching and delivery of feedback to the entire class of students at one time. The instructor can post course
materials and students can access it from any place and at any time.
Typical studio interaction involves one student requesting feedback and one faculty providing it directly to that
student. Though individual feedback is beneficial for student learning, the lower faculty to student ratio typical
in a studio is impractical. As educational institutions continue to increase enrollments by expanding their
“territory” through online education, faculty must deal with larger courses, often as multiple sections of the same
studio course. A typical class size for this course is 100 students. Traditionally, this would equate to five sections
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