return to IRL 🙌

After a year and a half of teaching online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were finally allowed back on campus. To celebrate the return to in-person teaching, my colleagues and I organised the first physical concept review and end-of-year expo for our first-year product design students, while adhering to the national rules in place during the pandemic.

This event was the first opportunity for students to truly engage with one another in a critique setting for the concept review, allowing them to give and receive in-person feedback and praise over their work. The end-of-year expo provided a rare and much-missed chance for an in-person celebration of the year's end, an experience that had been absent due to the pandemic.

The impact of this practice was significant, as it allowed everyone to appreciate the value of in-person critiques and expos. While digital online work environments facilitate collaborative work and sharing, being present in person to see the work fosters a deeper appreciation for the work and the practice of design. Our first-year product design students were able to experience this for the first time at the end of their academic year, as COVID-19 restrictions eased.