Case Study: Use of Online Tools in the Classroom and their Impact on Industrial Design Pedagogy

AbstractIndustrial Design education is going through a rapid evolution with more Design students making use of internet resources and tools such as crowdsourcing, 3D printing services, and other web-based tools to validate their ideas more quickly. The popularity of online 3D printing services such as Shapeways and Sculpteo accelerate the design process and learning. These services allow the designer to “print” virtually in any material such as plastics or metals. The impact of this new technology and other new web-based tools is significant not only in the industry but in the classroom as well. Current Industrial Design pedagogy is still partially based on technology, materials and processes that were developed a century ago. For example, pencils and paper are still the primary idea development tool. Books and magazines used to be the primary research tool but already have been surpassed by the Internet. Computer technology has improved significantly since the appearance of the first PCs, Macs and CNC machines. With all these advances in technology, one aspect of Industrial Design education that needs to be re-visited is the pedagogy of Design Drafting in this new age of online 3D printing services. The traditional Design pedagogy that was based on the development of different skills or competencies in separate courses or classes have not changed significantly in the last 40 years, 3D printing technology could potentially change this situation. Some new academic papers discuss this newer trend in Industrial Design schools but very few provide examples on how they implemented the new Internet-based 3D printing services in their curriculum. Industrial Design schools need to adapt quickly to the new reality, embracing Internet resources and online tools as core skills that every designer must have. This paper will discuss one case in particular where student projects were developed using online 3D printing services