Perceptions of Digital Fabrication in Design Education: Skills, Confidence, Motivation, and Enjoyment

Abstract

Education in digital fabrication design is characterized by a dynamic project-based learning environment, where ideas are materialized into prototypes. This environment affects the way design activities are conducted, the content that is learned, and the types of outcomes. However, existing research into digital fabrication curricula focuses on the outcomes produced by students. Not much is known about students' thoughts and beliefs regarding their learning. To gain insight into this learning experience, we investigated the self-perceptions of students in a digital fabrication course. The course targets first-year university students and was delivered in a hybrid online and in-person mode. It is designed to prepare students to create simple interactive physical prototypes using mechanical, electrical, and software components. In this study we delivered two surveys, one at the beginning of the course and the other at the end of the course. Four psychological measures were investigated, including self-perceived skills, confidence, motivation, and enjoyment, each represented by five technological dimensions. These five dimensions were 2D and 3D design, electronics, programming, and the use of tools and devices in digital fabrication. We found that while students' skills and confidence in performing a variety of digital fabrication activities significantly increased, motivation and enjoyment were unchanged or, in some cases decreased. Moreover, a positive correlation was observed between perceived skills and performance in the course. Self-reported skills and confidence were related at the end of the course, as were enjoyment and motivation. The results also showed that enjoyment and motivation were not associated with course performance. Intervention programs in higher education aimed at digital fabrication courses in design may benefit from considering the findings of the study. Important aspects to consider in future learning interventions are various ways to increase course motivation without sacrificing skill development.

Sustainability Considerations in Digital Fabrication Design Education

“…Digital fabrication design education ranges from brief topic workshops (e.g., [24][25][26]) to systematic programs spanning six months or more (e.g., [27]). In comparison to STEM digital fabrication education (e.g., [28]), digital fabrication design education is more extensive and skill-focused.…”

Collaborative Teamwork Prototyping and Creativity in Digital Fabrication Design Education

“…Teamwork in the context of digital fabrication design education is generally an underexplored topic. A few exceptions are the works of Georgiev et al (2022), Nagel et al (2017), andZhan et al (2022). As a difference to the exploration of teamwork in the design studio, teamwork in the context of digital fabrication is influenced by the wide range of technological tools and related skills targeted.…”

“…Depending on the type of audience or learning requirements, the learning activity can be set on different technological processes. However, the coverage of skills and techniques to be learned is similar across other education application cases, such as thematic workshops (Iwata et al, 2019(Iwata et al, , 2020Milara et al, 2019;Pitkänen et al, 2020) and courses (Georgiev et al, 2022;Georgiev and Nanjappan, 2023;Soomro et al, 2021).…”

“…In particular, we inquired about issues related to practices of learning by generating and constructing tangible artefacts and working together as a design team. The questionnaire at the beginning of the course included queries about each student's prior experience in each of the main digital fabrication technical dimensions, namely, 2D design, 3D design, electronics, programming and use of FabLab tools and machines (Georgiev et al, 2022;Milara et al, 2017). The questionnaire and the end of the course included inquiries into the actual roles taken by the team members during their work on the prototype in the course.…”

“…Digital fabrication design education targets a variety of technical and prototyping skills; therefore, a balance between the time span of the educational activity and a range of domain-specific skills is needed. This represents a challenge, provided that typical design education courses delivered in this context involve one period (Georgiev et al, 2022;Georgiev and Nanjappan, 2023) or one semester (Chan and Blikstein, 2018;Erichsen et al, 2021).…”