Collaboration is so much important for growth as an individual and a practitioner. It is extremely important to stop working in silos and collaborate for better discussion and learning. Learners should spend time after the classes, discussing amongst themselves. A lot of learning happens when we interact and discuss things. What we do outside the class is as important, as what we do during the class. After the classes, students are required use the time for independent learning. This could be happening in the form of studying and reflecting, being involved in research work, joining selected design forums for group discussion, peer discussion and feedback and in various other forms.

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I encourage Peer feedback during the classes as well, as this helps to pour in fresh perspectives of other learners and not just the teacher. The teacher also gets an overview on various topics from other people’s perspective. As a millennial, it is important for me to understand what the Gen Z thinks, as most of my learners are from this generation only. Other pertinent questions are- what are the challenges they are facing, how does this generation address their problems, how they speculate about future, etc. The generation gap always poses a challenge and it is important to empathize and develop bonds so the different generations can understand each other in a better manner. One of the ways this can be done is by forming learning communities on online and offline platforms, where people from different generations can join.

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To begin with, I have been encouraging students to develop their learning communities where students from other cohorts also come together. Unfortunately, many of the students are still hooked to the online applications like WhatsApp, which does allow for basic information exchange but may still be lagging in heart to heart discussions between a large group of students. Also, the groups are limited to the specific cohorts. Pearl has some other student community groups like Plan Clan and the recently started ADI Jaipur Student Chapter, which is allowing for interaction on WhatsApp but again it is extremely formal in nature. The real and enriching discussion in these communities seem to be still happening in face-to-face conversations. Endless chatting on apps like WhatsApp sometimes seems to have a detrimental effect, where a person is not able to gaze the real reactions and expressions felt by a person on a particular discussion topic. Being a teacher from the millennial group, somehow, I still value the face-to-face conversations more.  I have often seen study tours one of the great ways to form bonds between the students. With changing times, I feel that there is more need to explore good virtual platforms for enriching group discussions. I find the Zoom App to be a better virtual platform, which allows for these kind of discussions and increasingly a lot of online meetings have been taking place on platforms like Zoom and Google Meet.

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One of such communities had been formed under my observation in 2020-21. My colleagues and I had been stressing on interaction with alumni, especially for Level 3 Final Design Project. We shared printed and digital copies of thesis projects of the interior design alumni with the 2017-21 cohort, but still something was missing. The students were not able to connect with these Thesis projects and wanted to interact at a more personal level. Eventually, an idea was floated that instead of college inviting the alumni, why not the current final year students themselves take this initiative. Students and I had a discussion on how could we make it possible. Eventually we decided that this interaction would happen every Sunday in the evenings, as most of the alumni’s were busy with their office work for the remaining six days of the week. It was even suggested that the students need to design a poster with an official invite for alumni and this poster could be shared with other cohorts and the faculty, so they could get an opportunity to join the session. I did join the first session for some time, but I felt that in order to have candid conversations, it was essential that the faculty stayed out so that a strong learning community could be built between all the undergraduate and post-graduate interior design students.  One of the students Ms. Khandelwal from the graduating cohort took the initiative of leadership. We successfully ran this Open House Discussion Forum for around 4 months. After the forum had served its purpose, it was hence decided that students would further be concentrating on the execution work of their Major Design Project. I had a discussion with the alumni and they found the series a great way to keep in touch with existing students and to share their experiences on what worked, what did not, what were challenges that they came across, discussion on time management skills and various other important factors.

Now, when the students studied their senior’s works as a reference and guidance for their own thesis projects, they were able to better understand these projects and also understood the methodology and thought that went behind the project.

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I plan to discuss the same idea with current Final Year cohort 2018-22, so even they could initiate these series, which would be immensely helpful for their Major Design Project. Even research shows that Peer Teaching, Learning and feedback can be an effective tool for a fulfilling and enriching learning experience.  However, there are challenges in the Peer feedback system also in case the peers are not giving honest feedbacks or withholding important suggestions on their Peer’s project for competitive reasons. Nevertheless, I feel that with the right kind of mentoring by the teachers and bonding between the peers, honest and important feedbacks could come out that can add value to each other’s projects. Therefore, the advantages in many ways overweigh the drawbacks.

 

Like students, even the teachers need to be a part of the learning communities, as learning should never cease to stop. One of the most effective ways of learning from peers were the peer observation sessions. The feedback from the peers and mentors on my sessions were extremely helpful. This helped me in understanding my shortcomings and learning different ways to engage and interact with the students as demonstrated by my peers from the Holt group when they were taking their sessions. Apart from PGCAP, I maintain a strong connect with my colleagues from Interior Design department, where knowledge sharing and good discussions happen. I am also a member of ADI, Jaipur Chapter, which had been very active for some time. I feel that there is a need to go beyond these, and be a part of an active community that meets at least once a week on active basis. In addition, cross-disciplinary collaboration and learning is important to understand how the other design fields are progressing and what technologies are available so meaningful associations could be formed for a better professional growth.

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