Examining online design studio course experiences of students, academic supervisors and company mentors in industrial design program

Abstract

The aim of this study is to share the experiences and the collaborations carried out within the sector during the pandemic period, in a graduation project which is focused on university-industry cooperation - in order to make the role of the designer in the sector more effective, to transform education into a comprehensive sectoral experience for students and to offer the sector the experience of working with the designer at Department of Industrial Design, Eskisehir Technical University. The method of the research is a case study examining by designing it with a holistic single-case design since it is a single, representative, and typical case. In the case study, the research group consists of the students who were enrolled in the 2019-2020 spring term graduation project course, academic supervisors and company mentors at Eskisehir Technical University, Turkiye. The result of the study is that pandemic opened the door to new educational experiences for design academics, students and companies. This sharp bend mainly affected the implementation processes of oneon- one lessons, just like the design studio, which we define as the heart of design education. It has also paved the way for different online interactive educational tools and platforms to be used for the educational components of the design of the process.