The Intentional use of Learning Management Systems (LMS) to Improve Outcomes in Studio

At the University of Canberra, Australia, the design and architecture faculty are trialling a range of approaches to incorporating learning technologies in the first year foundation studio to improve student learning outcomes. For this study researchers collected information on students’ access to their assignment information and feedback from the learning management system (LMS) to discover how the students engaged in the design process.
The studio curriculum was designed to encourage students to engage in a convergence, divergence dynamic (Brown 2009, Thomas, Billsberry et al. 2014) in developing their own understanding of the design process. The staff tailored around points of convergence, online instruction, assessment tools and feedback in studio. We argue that using learning technologies in this way can improve intentionality at the beginning of semester, enhance students understanding of feedback and facilitate a more iterative approach to problem based learning in studio practice.