Abstract
Design being a collaborative field, often requires designers to engage with people from multi-disciplinary backgrounds to bring a concept from sketch to product or service. Social connectedness has been reported to help in this collaboration within and between teams. A design learning environment that promotes perceived social connectedness can aid future designers to cultivate greater collaboration and empathy that is essential for a user-centred approach to designing. This research was conducted to study the role of social connectedness in learning experience from the design educators’, students’ as well as practicing designers’ perspectives. Qualitative data collection was done with 35 semi-structured interviews with 15 design students, 12 design educators and 8 design professionals. An inductive approach was used to analyse the qualitative data, using thematic & narrative analysis method. NVivo 14 was used to code the transcripts, which made it easier to generate the frequency of mentions of each code and helped in identifying the main themes. To reduce subjectivity in coding the qualitative data, an intercoder reliability test was conducted with two other researchers. The findings were further categorised under the three dimensions of instructional, communicative, and learning using the Garrison and Archer (2000) Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework. An additional dimension of emotional/motivation was added to fully capture the findings of the study. The study also helped identify (and reiterate) the essential studio/classroom elements and factors that enhance interaction and connectedness. These elements can be intentionally incorporated into design education to enhance the learning experience of students.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drslxd.2025.066
Citation
Gogu, C.(2025) Connectedness in Design Learning Experience – A qualitative study using Nvivo analysis, in Clemente, V., Gomes, G., Reis, M., Félix, S., Ala, S., Jones, D. (eds.), Learn X Design 2025, 22-24 September 2025, Aveiro, Portugal. https://doi.org/10.21606/drslxd.2025.066
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Full Paper
Connectedness in Design Learning Experience – A qualitative study using Nvivo analysis
Design being a collaborative field, often requires designers to engage with people from multi-disciplinary backgrounds to bring a concept from sketch to product or service. Social connectedness has been reported to help in this collaboration within and between teams. A design learning environment that promotes perceived social connectedness can aid future designers to cultivate greater collaboration and empathy that is essential for a user-centred approach to designing. This research was conducted to study the role of social connectedness in learning experience from the design educators’, students’ as well as practicing designers’ perspectives. Qualitative data collection was done with 35 semi-structured interviews with 15 design students, 12 design educators and 8 design professionals. An inductive approach was used to analyse the qualitative data, using thematic & narrative analysis method. NVivo 14 was used to code the transcripts, which made it easier to generate the frequency of mentions of each code and helped in identifying the main themes. To reduce subjectivity in coding the qualitative data, an intercoder reliability test was conducted with two other researchers. The findings were further categorised under the three dimensions of instructional, communicative, and learning using the Garrison and Archer (2000) Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework. An additional dimension of emotional/motivation was added to fully capture the findings of the study. The study also helped identify (and reiterate) the essential studio/classroom elements and factors that enhance interaction and connectedness. These elements can be intentionally incorporated into design education to enhance the learning experience of students.