October 2006 Volume 9 Number 4

of 20 students with six contact hours each, for a total of 30 faculty contact hours per week. The new model pars
this down to one hour of lecture by the faculty, plus time spent training teaching assistants, answering email,
doing conference calls, and preparing online critiques, for a total of approximately five hours per week. Teaching
assistants cover 20 hours of computer lab time each week.
Figure 3: The Modified Design Studio Process
The new model involves 12 steps (see Figure 3). As in a traditional studio, each student works toward
completing one or more major projects for the semester. Each week, parts of the project are due and critiqued in
lecture. In a study of traditional studio interactions, students often can choose when to work in isolation and
when to be interact socially (James, 1996). In this course, computer lab time is available for students to work
independently or in small groups; lecture time is for interaction with the whole class.
Students draw their projects by hand and with CAD. Each student reports his weekly progress by scanning the
drawing into an image file, or by capturing the CAD drawing off the computer screen by depressing the Print
Screen button on his keyboard. The student then pastes the image onto a blank Microsoft PowerPoint © slide. He
may resize and add text as necessary. Assignments are saved to Adobe’s Portable Document File (PDF) format.
This allows the drawing file to be compressed, while retaining the layout and graphic presentation of the
submission. Using available file transferring software, he submits a copy of the image to the course website. The
goal is to use basic technology, which every student will have on his computer, such as the Print Screen key on a
keyboard, or free software to watch MP3 movies and view PDF files. All assignments are time and date stamped
when submitted electronically, keeping the students more accountable for submitting their work on time.
The process then transfers to the instructor or teaching assistant, who assembles all the image files into a single
collection representing student work for that week (see Figure 4). Student work is placed in alphabetical order by
last name. This allows the faculty to compare current work with previous work to ascertain progress (or lack of).
Confidentiality is maintained by removing all names from the slides.
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