This presentation formed part of the CPUT Teaching and Learning with Technology Day on 26 November 2020 and it is based on a book chapter currently in review, submitted to 'Co-teaching/researching in an Unequal World: Using Virtual Classrooms to Connect Africa, and Africa and the World’ Edited by Professors Shangase, Gachago and Ivala. This work forms part of collaborative research by 4 colleagues from Africa and Australia: Dr Mark Olweny from Uganda Martyrs University, Jolanda Morkel from the CPUT, Dr Lindy Osborne Burton from Queensland University of Technology and Mr Steven Feast from Curtin University. The context within which this reflective work is situated, is the architecture studio that is often associated with problems related to socialisation, asymmetrical power relations, the mental health of students caused by stress and workload, and a degree of ritualised teaching practices, and in online spaces specifically, aspects of social presence, authenticity, and embodiment. In our work we recognise differences and similarities in our contexts, that are visible in the composition of student bodies, staffing and resources, as well as the need to address social justice, and the call for decolonised curricula. Prior to the sudden global pivot to online learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and mandatory social distancing precautions, the four Schools of Architecture that form the focus of this chapter were open to adopt blended and online approaches to learning and teaching. The Professional Master's programme in Architecture at Curtin University is the first accredited fully online Master’s in Architecture in Australia and it is offered in collaboration with Open Universities Australia (OUA). The blended part-time Advanced Diploma in Architectural Technology programme at the CPUT is the result of a 6 year long University-Practice collaboration between the CPUT and Open Architecture. The resident programmes in architecture at the QUT employ digital technologies extensively, in custom-designed on-campus learning spaces. And the Master’s and Bachelor's programmes at UMU rely primarily on face-to-face on-campus (onground) teaching, complemented by virtual studio experiments. These four architectural learning sites are significant considering the general global resistance to online learning in architectural education, pre-pandemic. The online approaches adopted by these Schools of Architecture not only facilitated interaction and collaboration between students and educators, but also, in some cases, promoted inter-institutional collaboration. And these practices are the focus of this study. We employed a collaborative autoethnographic (CAE) approach to explore the potential for global collaboration in architectural education and to describe the approaches and strategies that can be considered.

1. corona chronicles
guiding principles for connected co-learning and co-teaching
in online and blended global architecture studios
Jolanda Morkel_Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa
Lindy Osborne Burton_Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Mark Olweny_Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi, Uganda
Steven Feast_Curtin University, Perth, Australia
CPUT Teaching and Learning with Technology Day
26 November 2020_9.00-13.30

2. background

4. methodology

5. 1_ connecting online and on-ground spaces
2_connecting university and the profession
3_connecting different digital learning tools
4_connecting with our students
5_connecting with academics locally and globally
6_connecting with international experts
7_connecting students through peer-to-peer
learning
Photo credit: Caron von Zeil

6. connectingonline&
on-groundspaces

7. We identified the following guiding principles for connecting
online and on-ground spaces
● Adopt a fluid and flexible approach, to allow for a drifting in
and out of different on-ground and online spaces and modalities
● Facilitate a range of formal and informal, institutional and social,
synchronous and asynchronous learning settings
● Ensure good learning design for clear and constructive
learning experiences and pathways that can be easily navigated
● Consider the importance of values and community,
responding to diverse cultural preferences, and how these might
shape learning contexts
● Accommodate student unequal needs and circumstances,
that may not be constant, but that could change over time

8. connecting university
and the profession

9. Guiding principles: Connecting university with the
profession
● Create opportunities to position students in an expert
role
● Use technology to connect the campus and workplace
spaces
● Consider collaboration with external parties that care
about education
● Employ technology to allow students to earn while they
learn
● Encourage students to participate in competitions and
professional activities

10. connecting different
digital learning tools

11. Guiding principles: Connecting different digital learning
tools
● Value the human factor
● Consider the adoption of multiple tools, channels and
appliances
● Accommodate multiple user viewpoints
● Consider the rapid development of online tools, including
AR and VR
● Design for inclusivity

12. connecting with
our students

13. Guiding Principles: Connecting with our students
● Provide pastoral care to students as an essential element
of effective teaching online
● Consider that hierarchies of privilege and disadvantage
are exacerbated online
● Guard against students feeling ‘exposed’ and confronted
when learning online
● Display humanity and humour to help neutralise anxiety
● Embrace social media to provide safe and student-led
social spaces

14. connecting with
academics locally and
globally

15. Guiding principles: Connecting with academics locally and
nationally
● Consider social and personal interaction as a way to
share ideas and experiences
● Remember the role that humour can play to bring people
together
● Accommodate intellectual, practical and emotional
support
● Find ways to straddle boundaries and overcome time
zones
● Seek diversity when setting up connections

16. connecting with international experts

17. Guiding principles: Connecting with International experts
● Ensure diversity in the choice of international experts
● Consider student agency through their localised and
indigenous knowledge
● Employ international experts as accessible and
affordable collaborators, through online technology
● Use available digital tools and resources, including
synchronous, asynchronous or even mobile technologies,
proprietary or open source software
● Adopt flexible strategies to meet students, staff and
experts where they are

18. connecting students
through peer-to-peer
learning

19. Guiding principles: Connecting students through peer-to-
peer learning
● Optimise student social networks for peer-to-peer
learning e.g. collaborative/ group work
● Consider collaborative assignments to facilitate student
interaction early on in the programme
● Acknowledge a layering of connections and
relationships, inside and outside of the university where
students find their peers to provide honest feedback
● Consider students’ respective/ diverse locations to
enrich projects through added contextual layers of learning
● Support students to set up social learning spaces not
necessarily accessible by staff

20. thank you