Teaching Award 2021 | Lehrpreis 2021 der Hochschule Anhalt

I received the teaching award of Hochschule Anhalt for my attempt to teach an undergrad interaction design course over distance. Pandemic teaching is psychologically exhausting for everyone involved, and so I tried to focus on the key values of Participatory Design in developing and teaching this course:

Genuine Participation
Mutual Learning
Design by Doing
Democracy and Engagement
Situation Design
Participatory Outcome

Learning Objective

The learning objective of the Interaction & Experience Design module (undergrad) is to enable students to interactively combine interactive technology and a handicraft practice. Practically, this means students learn technical-practical use of laser cutter, 3D printer, sewing machine, and wood work in connection with sketching, CAD, and Arduino.

Problem

The course is based on materiality and craft in a design studio environment. Now, due to Covid-19 restrictions in summer 2021, we had to move this course online and so there was a lot of fiddling with webcams to have our hands visible, a lot of material was traveling by post, and for distance learning tools we relied on breakout rooms in Zoom, Miro and of course, Moodle.

There is also a press release at HS Anhalt and a video (in German only) showcasing both the course and my minuscule IxD lab. And I finally had the chance to hold an oversized cheque in front of Bauhaus Dessau.

@arneberger attempts to smile and is holding an oversized cheque to the sum of 5000€ in front of the bauhaus in dessau. The sun is shining, the bauhaus is scaffolded. — Achievement unlocked: Holding an oversized cheque in front of Bauhaus Dessau.