Covid-19 has created real challenges for fashion design education, but the digitization it's forcing could lead to lasting change in the industry — not all of it bad:
Author:Molshree VaidUpdated:Mar 23, 2020Original:Mar 23, 2020Covid-19 has created a first-of-its-kind challenge for fashion design schools and colleges: How can they teach practical, hands-on courses online?
WeChat has emerged as the preferred teaching platform for Gottelier and his colleagues. Through February and March, his students have attended on-screen pattern-cutting classes and watched knitting demos from tutors. On a multi-screen chat, students share their knitting progress while receiving real-time feedback from teachers.
A similar attitude has been adopted by Layla Sailor, who teaches fashion promotion and imaging at the University of Creative Arts in Hong Kong. Her students, unable to leave their residences, recently completed a photography assignment by shooting objects at home on their phones. Her friends in the first and second years are attending classes on the Tencent app, she says, where assignments are shared and discussed in chatrooms.
"How am I supposed to be a fashion design student without fashion design resources???!?!," tweeted one Ryerson University student. Another asked how fashion design majors are holding up considering that "the campus is closed and most students don't have access to a sewing machine or serger now." "We need to put the students at ease by promptly informing them about the change of expectations," she says. "They would have already made prototypes and toiles which could be considered for marking. We should also increase the emphasis on 2D and written work."
Pre-recorded videos are one of the obvious solutions and taking a page from online instructor Nino Via's handbook might be helpful. He teaches pattern-making and draping courses on Udemy, an e-learning platform. "I didn't want a big building, a unionized faculty or a slowly evolving curriculum," he explains. "Ours is a rapid response platform for design education. The main challenge for a practical course is access to equipment, but there are innovative ways to blend online and offline."
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