Akashi College Architecture Department offered online international design workshops to replace the international exchange activities suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The first online design workshop started in November 2020 and ended in January 2021. It had 53 participants, including students from Japan, Brazil, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Singapore. The second online design workshop started in October 2021 and ended in January 2022. It had 90 participants, 84 students from Japan, Brazil, Hong Kong, Germany, the Philippines, and Mexico, and Taiwanese teachers from six different Kaohsiung Municipals technical high schools. The third workshop started in November 2022 and ended in February 2023. It had 50 participants, including students from Japan, Brazil, Hong Kong, and Germany. All workshops had once a week an online meeting session of 90 minutes. The students worked in groups and developed the design of a tearoom. At the end of the workshop, they explained their designs using drawings and a five-minute video presentation. These workshops were part of an elective course for Japanese students, and they worked together in the same room while having online meetings with their international group members. Two instructors monitored the online sessions and assisted the students when necessary.
This paper offers practical teaching suggestions by comparing the results from three workshops. The methodology used here to evaluate the workshops are surveys with the students, observation of the students during the workshop, and an analysis of the results: the tearoom designs developed by the students. First, we explain how the workshops took place, from the recruitment of the students to the final presentation. We present difficulties and troubles experienced during the workshop. Later, based on the survey results, we will discuss the workshop's impact on the students. Then we will compare the tearoom designs of the online workshop with the previous offline workshop.