Rapid switch from face-to-face workshops to online workshops

During 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic required many higher education institutes, including engineering education, to quickly switch all face-to-face lessons and meetings to remote meetings and teaching sessions. This situation forced us all to rapidly create new ways to interact, work and study remotely. We had planned to organize five face-to-face multiprofessional ideation workshops in spring 2020 to create unbiased and innovative ideas related to smart clothing. COVID-19 forced us to replace the planned face-to-face workshops with five online workshops. We chose one video meeting platform for that purpose. Overall, online workshops proved to be an effective way to gather diverse ideas. The work went smoothly, although the video meeting platform was new to some participants. Online workshops are an easy way to bring together people regardless of geographical distances. Even though the organized workshops were for research purposes, we think similar workshops are very suitable for online teaching as well. We believe online workshops will be here to stay after COVID-19, as they are a great option when hybrid teaching and working take place.publishedVersionPeer reviewe