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

approval. This view was expressed more clearly by older than by younger students.
One can conclude that the older students believed that collaboration helps them in
appreciating and understanding the subject much better. Younger students did not
express this idea with such clarity. Quite a number of times younger students mentioned
that they normally seek advice or discuss design problems with their friends or seniors.
They indicated that they felt more comfortable and achieved better understanding
when they discussed design problems with their peers. It would thus seem that
students, in general, were ready to adopt the social constructivist approach to learning
the design subjects.
Hands-on experience: Students in the third to fifth levels agreed that the models which
they built were simple and unsophisticated at the beginning, but with experience,
support, and reflection, they became increasingly complex. On the basis of this, they
argued that the tutors’ role should not be to do the job on their behalf, but rather to
facilitate learning. They clearly indicated that tutors should not only communicate the
important facts and concepts in the discipline but also, and more importantly, help in
bridging the gap between the structures of the discipline and the structures in their
minds. These views are consistent with the cognitive learning theory. Recent
researches suggest that each person has a particular set of learning characteristics that
determine the ways and means by which he/she learns. However, these innate learning
preferences are almost immediately modified and developed by activity and experience.
This continues over time and in relationship to context, through the variety of learning
experiences encountered (Wolf and Kolb, 1984). Learners integrate new ideas with
prior knowledge in order to make sense or make meaning or reconcile a discrepancy,
curiosity, or puzzlement. They construct their own meaning for different phenomena.
For this reason, the tutor must engage students in active dialogue around learning and
using learning materials. He/she must set a range of tasks and strategies which will
facilitate and involve students in active processing (for example discussion, debate,
questioning, explaining) so that they transform, translate and own the learning as
personal knowledge
Visualisation: Students in all levels emphasised that they can understand and
communicate in the design process better when visual aids are used. Many of them
commented on the current practice as:
"very superficial" ...
"lack of visuals"..
"blurry and lack in-depth information"...
"too much theory... ".
One of the level two students commented that:
"I am not happy with the way we are taught here. I can't get the essence of learning
construction [...] may be lack of visual contact as I learn faster (better) through visual,
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