Deserted studio: evaluating remote-learning practices for the post-pandemic era

To limit the spread of Coronavirus, educational institutions had to suddenly shift to remote learning during the Spring of 2020. This study aims to evaluate the adopted remote-learning practices among architectural students and their instructors. To this end, the authors implemented a descriptive cross-sectional approach to highlight the aligned and opposing perceptions, respectively. The work adopts the following four-step methodology: (1) Interviews;(2) identification of findings;(3) online surveys;and (4) comparative analysis. Results from 139 respondents were collected from 15 Egyptian universities and 6 non-Egyptian universities. Findings demonstrate the potential advantages of reduced commuting costs, besides going paperless. Nevertheless, a crucial need for a well-established infrastructure and increased self-motivation has been raised. Furthermore, the study sheds the light on the future potential of integrating hybrid-learning models, virtual reality, and other practices to embrace learning strategies. This research contributes to architectural education practices by providing guidelines for enhancing online-learning experiences. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Pandemic, Repair, and Resilience: Coping with Technology Breakdown during COVID-19

COVID-19 disrupted the existing ecosystem of technology repair and recycle in Bangladesh as visiting repair workshops became difficult and most repairers and e-waste workers had to temporarily close their businesses. Consequently, users were left with very few choices for fixing or recycling their devices. Based on our interviews with 30 repair and e-waste workers and 21 users of electronic devices we capture various aspects of this disruption and the corresponding coping mechanisms. This paper reports how the repair and e-waste worker communities adopted various changes to their work, provided remote services, and yet faced a decline in their business. On the other hand, end-users learned to fix their devices, collaborated with each other, and negotiated with partially broken devices to address this challenge. We further discuss the broader implications of our findings for HCI scholarship in HCI4D, resilience, and sustainability. © 2021 ACM.