| Abstract: |
Objectives or purposes: Previous studies have revealed how multiple tools and “nonlinear” organization of collaboration might pose challenges for students in makerspaces (Stahl and Hakkarainen, 2020; Kajamaa et al., 2020). When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the access to the physical makerspaces, and removed the layers of face-to-face interactions and just-in-time support, students and their teachers had to face even more challenges when navigating design tasks and projects which are often complex and involve heterogeneous learners groups and technologies (Jayathirtha et al. 2020). Given such a context, this study illuminates how a design class in a higher education setting transitioned from a lab-based environment to an online, more socially-opaque mode during the pandemic, and investigates in what ways the transition changed students’ ways of learning and making.
Theoretical framework: We employ constructionist approaches (Papert, 1993) to understand the process of artifact and knowledge construction, and make use of socio-cultural theories of learning (Vygotsky, 1978) to understand how learners collectively shape their learning experience both online and offline.
Methods and Data Sources: This work takes a single case study approach (Creswell, 2002) focusing on a 12-student design class. Observation field notes, semi-structured interviews and student-generated artifacts (including student projects, lab journals and post-it notes) were analyzed to gain in-depth understandings of how the transition had changed students’ ways of learning and making.
Results: Our findings reveal that the transition from more “socially-transparent” (lab-based) to “socially-opaque” (home-based) learning affects different types of learners distinctively. We categorized our students with respect to their level of technology self-efficacy and self-initiated actions. For those with more self-initiated actions, even with the lack of equipment and just-in-time support, they were able to quickly identify needs and actively look for solutions. Some of them decided to work in pairs, form casual support groups or book online hours with TAs frequently to rebuild “community.” For students who have high self-efficacy but less self-initiated actions, they found the online learning experience less fulfilling without the generative interactions with peers. They also tended to solve problems on their own rather than taking the extra effort to ask for outside help in remote learning. For students who have low self-efficacy and less self-initiated actions, their absences from class largely increased and they were more hesitant to reach out for help online. They all experienced different levels of anxiety and tended to give up or change their project goals more frequently. Extra support and scaffolding from the teaching team were needed, and tensions between students’ personal interest and instructions from teachers needed to be addressed early in the process.
Significance: This study sheds light on the role of social mediation and visibility in makerspaces. By studying adult novices, this work could not only inform the design of making activities for adults in online and offline environments, but could also bring new insights for future research directions in K-12 maker education.
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