The article considers the potential of computer graphic modeling based on the experience of distance learning in design and art disciplines at the Department of Environmental design of the Stroganov Academy. An analysis of both practical and theoretical work of the Department during the semester made it possible to conclude that the model for the integration of full-time and distance learning, the individual and interactive approaches to the student is optimal for schools of creative arts. The experiment revealed the greatest flexibility and adaptability to the online format of the methodological material of the disciplines of graphic tools, its maximum openness to self-study, its role in innovative forms of design work, of the creative search for student's own learning style.
There is no single theory for learning in general; this is also true for online education. Today we have a number of theories of online education based on traditional teaching methods. The main purpose of this article is to analyse some ways to transform the model of visual and graphic content of traditional design education in a school of creative arts in terms of its compliance with the online educational environment.
The theory of distance education has received sufficient justification abroad. in
Various forms of distance learning existed since the 1840s starting from the primitive
format of information transmission such as "pigeon mail" and up to theoretical
explanations of distance education, undertaken by leading experts. "Traditionally, theories
of distance education have been derived from classical European or American models
based on correspondence study» [
Telecommunication systems have significantly changed the practice of distance
learning (for example, the equivalence theory of M. Simonson [
Some ways of work with CAD graphics in a new remote media format were presented in the educational process of the Department of Environmental design of Moscow State Stroganov Academy of Design and Applied Arts. The uniqueness of the graphic pattern is formed by the multidisciplinary structure of the Department. Teaching, training of bachelors and masters is conducted according to the programs of Environmental Design and Multimedia Design.
Despite the difference of the final project product (certificate of professional qualification of the student), the most important common basis for those two profiles is CAD technology. If computer graphics takes an important place in the full-time format of training, then in the conditions of distance learning this tool becomes the only possible form of visualization, replacing modelling, manual drawing, sketching, etc.
The existing graphic techniques are undergoing their maximum transformation in the technology of training and conducting of professional design and propaedeutic disciplines. In the new remote dialogue between teacher and student old methods of presentation are not effective.
Normally, a person receives 80% of the information through vision. If the educational information flow is restricted exclusively to visual images that are familiar and necessary in an art school, the requirements for this visual material are seriously increasing. It takes on new functions and is loaded with new qualities that previously accompanied the teacher's face-to-face dialogue with the student. The historically established tradition of transferring the experience of "art craft" from the master to the student in the oral form of consulting based on an aesthetic subjective assessment of the project material has been replaced by impersonal, but more universal criteria for evaluating virtual technologies. Stroganov school of design as a professional integrity is focused basically on the reproduction of knowledge and the entire learning process, its processes are cyclical. In 2020 with its situation of forced self-isolation, the remote format with its virtual graphics platform assumed the role of a model of professional creative education. 1.1
Distance education is an international phenomenon that has radically changed the
methods and approaches to the educational process. The basis of the positive vector is
that “…modern telecommunications and electronic publications can overcome the
shortcomings of traditional forms of education, while maintaining all their
advantages… Distance learning technology is …the process of independent, but
controlled development of a certain volume of knowledge” [
The Model of Distance Education of the Designer in the Frames of Computer Project… 3
forms; social accessibility; “openness, individual pace of classes, new opportunities
for student’s creative self-expression” [
The main aim of the distance education is “to ensure that the entire educational
system is ahead of the curve and is focused on the problems of the future
postindustrial civilization... to increase creativity in education in order to be ready for
activities in various social environments” [
Considering all the above prospective requirements “…it’s logical to turn to
possible options for organizing distance learning, their specifics, to determine for what
purposes this or that option may be most acceptable and under what conditions;
secondly, what impact does it have on the organization of the educational process, the
selection of content, methods, organizational forms and means of training” [
Electronic technologies of distance education, having introduced themselves into the system of higher art education, received an impetus for development and supplemented the methodology of the teacher with new technological and interactive potential.
In distance learning of higher schools, a set of methodological materials, such as
“…case technology and network technology –computer training programs and
electronic textbooks, ... and television-satellite technology can be considered as an
independent form of education of the 21st century, as well as an innovative component of
full-time and distance learning” [
The digital format of distance learning programs for environmental and multimedia design realizes the advantages of visual and graphic tools with minimal involvement of a humanitarian intermediary. The expressive language of graphics that speaks without words became an only possible language of the new distance communication. 2 2.1
It’s very hard to write a good tutorial for designers. And by the way almost no one has written it yet. As a rule, the educational literature is limited either to the analysis of a narrow project topic, or to the general theory of plastic composition. Computer textbooks from the collections of the “Hind” electronic library system provided assistance in preparing for independent classes, including training in graphic editors. Extremely useful material, among other things, was a textbook and a workshop for universities "Digital technologies in design. History, theory, practice", published in the Stroganov Academy under the editorship of A.N.Lavrentyev.
In the creative sphere, the methods of full-time training are not formatted in a set of strict rules and still keeps the memory of "workshop skills". The aura and charisma of teacher’s personality, clearly present in traditional full-time education, is compensated by the capabilities of IT technologies that use virtual instead of traditional means. The uniqueness of teacher’s individual methodology is partially preserved even in the situation of distant education.
Among the various types of distance learning technologies that are used in Russia,
“the most promising and widely used is Internet technology” [
The core of such technology is digital graphic material relating to various aspects of design. Actual working graphic or video materials and current graphic tasks have become available in the structured, according to the curriculum, Mega cloud storage service. The service has become an optimal tool for the exchange and control of visual graphic information.
Remote work with the use of information technology has great flexibility and adaptive capabilities, allows one to apply the school’s traditional individual approach to the personality of each student. The graphic visualization still remains the main way of implementing the author’s solution.
The main used interactive format of Internet technologies in training are webinars. The online format of classes at the Department of Environmental Design arose long before today and began precisely with training programs for graphic editors: After effects, Premier Pro and Cinema 4D - all in the format of webinars. Initially, for that purpose the Youtube.com platform together with programs capturing the image on the monitor was used. Afterwards it was decided to abandon this method in favor of video conferences in the Zoom program. The author of the programs is a teacher of the Department – D. E. Kardashenko.
The format of video conferences (consultations) made it possible to compensate for the "teacher's personality" factor significantly and gave an optimal quality to the video-graphic material presented by online comments. The fundamental principle of art education remains the priority of creative principles implemented in an individual (humanitarian) approach on the art and graphic material of the project.
The distance between the teacher and the student enhances the interest in the dynamic graphics format, which has a great potential for information. Video allows one to reflect the procedural nature of the design. The format for the presentation of educational material by a teacher often becomes reoriented from a static PowerPoint presentation model to its dynamic model, which includes graphic video content. Different video formats such as avi, Mpeg4, etc. become an opportunity to reveal the latent nature of creativity, and often the only possible way to explain to a student design tasks: the creation and functioning of mobile application interfaces; examples of the formation of design concepts from design to prototype, etc. Video recording of
The Model of Distance Education of the Designer in the Frames of Computer Project… 5 the master classes allows you to introduce the student to the technique and tools of a particular study.
The main difficulty of distance education in design lies in its creative artistic basis. Creativity, compensating for the humanitarian deficit, penetrates even into the technical model of computer technology training. The technical methods of working in Adobe After Effects are invested in the final task in a story video with a musical basis.
Fluency in graphic techniques and software capabilities liberates the student's creative thinking process. The focus on an experiment and the discovery that follows, are the integral parts of the creative process and the creation of a new, previously nonexistent, imaginative project concept that is present in every student project. How can one convey the creative intent of a project using conditional graphics? In that situation the combined representation of an idea or concept in static illustrative graphics, collage, animated format, video shooting, three-dimensional prototyping, etc. comes to the rescue.
The distance format drew special attention to the research phase of the Master's degree and projects in the field of interactive design of the Multimedia profile. This required a change in the graphic composition of the project. A layer of digital infographic has appeared.
Graphic visualization using software packages of 3d max, Cinema 4D; 2d orthogonal projections of environmental objects are supplemented by graphical analytical diagrams and graphs. Distance learning emphasizes the stage of pre-project research and increases the role of infographics in term and degree projects. The tasks of lighting design in environmental content are starting with the introduction of the Dialux EVO version 9.0 and Adobe After Effects programs. Distance learning of manual project graphics is partially compensated by the possibilities of computer illustration – an integral part of multimedia and environmental projects. To make a sketch, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop programs are used. Illustrative rendered graphic images become the basis for subsequent character animation. 2.3
Methods of artistic design in the format of distance education
“We consider distance education as an independent system, one of the forms of
education. It is therefore logical to turn to the possible options for organizing distance
learning, their specifics, in order to determine, first, for what purposes this or that
option may be most acceptable and under what conditions, and secondly, what is the
specificity of the components of each of the possible options, namely: what impact
does this or that option have on the organization of the educational process, the
selection of content, methods, organizational forms and means of training” [
The process of switching to distance learning in the Multimedia Design profile, where the experience of implementing information technologies in the educational process began long before the quarantine, was quite smooth. The proprietary free messenger Discord became a technological solution for conducting classes (consultations of teachers Ivanova E. and Kuznetsova E.) with students in the discipline "Design". A whole group could simultaneously see each other's work and be able to comment on it. This brought classes as close as possible to offline consultations: stu
The Model of Distance Education of the Designer in the Frames of Computer Project… 7 dents showed their home work and received comments in the format of an audio conversation with a demonstration of a personal computer screen.
The virtual resource, however, allowed teachers to clearly follow the project management methodology. On the first stage students showed presentations with research on the future topic of the project and after its "approval" conducted a step-by-step analysis of the social, ergonomic, geographical, economic, and other points of view. Sociological analysis of consumer model which is necessary for creating a website or mobile app project requires a serious pre-project research and visualization of its results.
The research results became the basis for the project solution. Spatial visualization in 3d max / Cinema 4D programs was demonstrated in the render format.
Figma and/or Tilda software tools were used to design prototype interfaces. Students shared links to web pages with prototypes in a general chat. The final implementation of the project included a study designed in a landing page, a graphic image (1500x1500 mm) and a video clip. Interactive prototypes on the project theme were used.
According to tutors E.Ivanova and E.Kuznetsova, one of the advantages of distance learning is the maximum use of modern technologies on the example of Zoom, Discord, Mega, Figma, Tilda services, which are necessary for future specialists in the field of interactive design. The online format taught students to present their work clearly, concisely and more competently. According to tutors E.Ivanova and E.Kuznetsova, one of the advantages of distance learning is the maximum use of modern technologies on the example of Zoom, Discord, Mega, Figma, Tilda services, which are necessary for future specialists in the field of interactive design. The online format taught students to present their work clearly, concisely and more competently.
The environmental approach has become the basis for the analysis and development of complex projects for interior and exterior environments. Due to the withdrawal of traditional sketches "by hand" and its replacement with computer graphic visualization, the program SketchUp, which has a great potential for graphic tools, attracted attention. It became a useful addition to 3d max / Cinema 4D programs involved in creating of 3D visualizations of environmental projects.
The developed innovative solutions of imaginative project content are demonstrated in integrated computer multimedia environments: PDF presentations, project presentations, readymag.com website that allows to create online presentations with any graphic content, etc. 3
In the current situation of forced distance learning format, it is advisable to talk about
the formation of the Distinctive Distance Education Design, which defines the
pedagogical methods used in courses, synchronous and asynchronous communications,
etc. [
The format of distant learning required additional motivation for the student. “It is
the motivation to get really solid knowledge that is the driving force for distance
learning” [
With a sharp change in project and educational tasks, as in the situation of restructuring the entire education system for the period of self-isolation in March 2020, the optimal solution is to get acquainted with as many techniques and methods of work of the teacher with the student as possible. The great potential of information and graphic tools allowed us to quickly reconstruct the creative process in a remote format without loss of mutual understanding and violation of interpersonal relations, to speak the same "language".
The disadvantages of distance work include a significant share of the responsibility, self-discipline and initiative required from the student. Distance makes the organization and management of learning imperfect, does not provide systematic feedback, reduces the indicator of sociability, personal contact of students with each other and with teachers is minimal or in the worst case there is no contact at all. For the fullweight work of the group as a whole the need for traditional contact classes in the Academy's classrooms is necessary. 4
Distance education appeared at the stage of standardization of training programs, on the wave of globalization processes. Online training at an art school has become a forced exclusive measure, which is not typical for solving creative tasks. Moving away from the traditional model levels the aesthetic and emotional cross-section of the dialogue between "Teacher" and "Student", disrupts the delicate balance of the humanitarian artistic aspect and the innovative-technological origin. The trend of standardization is in direct conflict with creative tasks: to preserve the individuality and creative portrait of the student.
Of all possible models the one created by H.Gardner (Frames of Mind: The Theory
of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books. 1983) is the closest to desired:
“…an integrated model that described the phenomenon of pedagogically driven
online education. Key to this model is the assumption that online education has
evolved as a subset of learning in general rather than a subset of distance learning. As
blended learning, which combines face-to-face and online instruction, evolves into the
dominant form of instruction throughout all levels of education, it serves as the basis
for an integrated model” [
Evgeniya Ivanova: “The new format of the "Interface" discipline inspired me to optimize part of the work online and add new tools to the program. I consider the experiment on distance learning of the discipline "interface" to be successful and I am ready to use its individual aspects further on.” Ekaterina Kuznetsova: “Working in an audience and in personal communication with students, computer disciplines, especially in the field of animation and threedimensional modeling are learned better and faster due to the personal contact with the teacher. At the same time, a big advantage of distance learning is the simplification of knowledge control due to the " transparency” of the control system.”