framework for the implementation of a virtual design studio model in ...

architecture as the major subject of their first and third years. Thirty four
students attended from the 50 who had initially registered for the
workshop. The researcher attempted to discover whether those who
had dropped out had different important characteristics from those who
attended. The college records indicate that there are no major
differences with regard to age, gender, or academic performance.
Twenty six of the students were female. Five of the students were UAE
nationals and the rest were from different Arabic countries; there are
also two Indians. This perfectly represented the actual variation in the
UAE society in terms of nationalities.
� Focus Group
After the completion of the VDS 3 workshop the researcher conducted a
focus group survey with a number of students - who voluntary attended
the workshop to get an in-depth insight of their view of the workshop and
its importance in introducing new ways of thinking and new ways of
learning using technology. The group was selected randomly by
emailing the students using Facebook, asking them to meet with the
researcher and her assistant in the university at 1600 after they had
finished their study commitments. Some of the students turned up. The
researcher was looking for at least 15 students – only 10 arrived. The
researcher had previously prepared some questions but intended only to
direct the conversation rather than limit the answers. The researcher
handled the task of inquiring the students and facilitated the presence of
the research assistant who performed the transcription for the whole
conversation. The students were asked about their feedback on the
workshop in which they indicated that it had been the first time for them
to undertake a workshop of that kind, carrying all of these ideas and new
methods of teaching in addition to the introduction of games and
activities in the classroom. The students also indicated the importance
of introducing social networking technologies such as Facebook and
that they should start using it not only for the workshop but for their
entire university study, as they believed in its potential in saving time
and easing communications, especially when issues such as gender are
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