Lurking and learning: Making learning visible in a Virtual Design Studio

This paper explores certain types of student behaviour in design courses presented through an online distance learning environment and using a virtual design studio. It demonstrates that types of behaviour often considered to be passive, and therefore negative or less valuable than obviously active behaviours, can be significant evidence of student learning. Specifically, viewing other students’ work is demonstrated to be a stronger (or equal) correlation of student success compared to any other behaviour measured in the virtual design studios studied. It is hypothesised that this activity is part of a larger set of social learning behaviours that contribute to a general social press or ‘ecology’ of studio learning. This finding has important implications for the design and implementation of virtual studios (technically and in learning design) and these are reported specifically for the interest and use of learning designers

Design Education in the Open

From its inception in the 1970s the UK Open University faced the challenge of teaching design to students at a distance and with open entry qualifications. Teaching design ‘in the open’ has required creative approaches to aid students in the acquisition of requisite skills, knowledge and values. OU design courses pioneered the teaching of design for a broad, non- specialist audience and in identifying the particular characteristics of design thinking, influencing not only OU students but wider teaching in the higher education sector. These principles have been applied during the development of design education at the OU from printed text and broadcast TV into the use of digital media and the Internet. Over time, technological changes, together with concomitant changes in HE generally, have brought different modes of design education closer together, but the OU continues to pioneer in design pedagogy

OpenDesignStudio: virtual studio development over a decade

This paper presents a case study on OpenDesignStudio (ODS), an online, virtual design studio used to support a Design and Innovation qualification at The Open University (UK). The case presents the main design and development iterations ODS over a period of nearly 15 years and presents recent usage data of large-scale student populations (3000+ students). As such it is one of the largest and longest online, distance design studios, representing a unique longitudinal study of Virtual Design Studio use. The case highlights the importance of learning design, social learning mechanisms, and induction into studio culture

Social engagement in online design pedagogies

Design studio education has been a leading pedagogical principle in design learning for over 100 years. Initially, the studio environment was seen as a collaborative environment in which students follow the work of their peers’ through formal presentations, critiques and informal conversations. In the recent past, research on design studios has lost sight of the social component in studio education in favour of concentrating on the tutor-students relationship. As the delivery of design education has moved into online environments, scholars have begun to recognise that social engagement with peers may be of a greater importance to students’ design learning than previously acknowledged. This paper explores the gap in our understanding of engagement and interaction by analysing quantitative and qualitative data from 317 students who were studying an online module in design thinking. The module facilitates learning akin to the design studio experience. An online environment allows students to share and discuss design work, asynchronously, with peers at a distance. The results of the analysis show a correlation between engagement and students success, and further analysis of the kinds of interactions suggest six themes of social engagement that have a positive effect on students’ outcomes. These findings add to our understanding of successful online design pedagogies

A longitudinal study of Virtual Design Studio (VDS) use in STEM distance design education.

The use of virtual design studios (VDS) in practice-based STEM education is increasing but requires further research to inform understanding of student learning and success. This paper presents a longitudinal, large-scale study (3 years, 3,000 students) of student behaviour in an online design studio used as part of a distance learning Design and Innovation qualification, within the School of Engineering and Innovation at The Open University (UK). The sample size and time period of the study is unprecedented and provides unique insights into student behaviours. Moderate correlations between overall VDS use and student success were identified in early stages of study but were weaker in later stages. Detailed results identify specific behaviour correlations, such as ‘listening-in’ (viewing other students’ work) and student success, as well as behaviour shifts from ‘passive’ to ‘active’ engagement. Strong intrinsic motivations for engagement were observed throughout and selected social learning mechanisms are presented to explain the empirical results, specifically: social comparison, presence, and communities of practice. The contribution of this paper is the framing of these mechanisms as steps in the longitudinal development of design students in a distance setting, providing an informed basis for the understanding, design, and application of virtual design studios

Social technologies for online learning: theoretical and contextual issues

Three exemplars are presented of social technologies deployed in educational contexts: wikis; a photo-sharing environment; and a social bookmarking tool. Students were found to engage with the technologies selectively, sometimes rejecting them, in the light of their prior conceptions of education. Some students (a minority in all the studies) were unsympathetic to the educational philosophy underpinning the technology’s adoption. The paper demonstrates, through an examination of in-context use, the importance of socio-cultural factors in relation to education, and the non-deterministic nature of educational technology. The academic study of technology has increasingly called into question the deterministic views which are so pervasive in popular discourse and among policy makers. Instead, socio-cultural factors play a crucial role in shaping and defining technology and educational technology is no exception, as the examples in the paper show. The paper concludes by drawing out some implications of the examples for the use of social technologies in education

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

Prevalence and architecture of de novo mutations in developmental disorders.

The genomes of individuals with severe, undiagnosed developmental disorders are enriched in damaging de novo mutations (DNMs) in developmentally important genes. Here we have sequenced the exomes of 4,293 families containing individuals with developmental disorders, and meta-analysed these data with data from another 3,287 individuals with similar disorders. We show that the most important factors influencing the diagnostic yield of DNMs are the sex of the affected individual, the relatedness of their parents, whether close relatives are affected and the parental ages. We identified 94 genes enriched in damaging DNMs, including 14 that previously lacked compelling evidence of involvement in developmental disorders. We have also characterized the phenotypic diversity among these disorders. We estimate that 42% of our cohort carry pathogenic DNMs in coding sequences; approximately half of these DNMs disrupt gene function and the remainder result in altered protein function. We estimate that developmental disorders caused by DNMs have an average prevalence of 1 in 213 to 1 in 448 births, depending on parental age. Given current global demographics, this equates to almost 400,000 children born per year