Teaching and Supervising Distant Interdisciplinary Design Teams

Paper in proceeding, 2015

Due to the multidisciplinary character of interaction design and HumanTechnology Interaction (HTI), the type of the department that runs interaction design or HTI education typically has a major influence on the education, the courses and the students. We have explored these differences by co-organizing a course together, combining teachers and students from an interaction design oriented education with those from a HTI-oriented education. In this, we wanted to expose ourselves and our students to the differences that occur when teaching these subjects from different angles, using them as a strength rather than a weakness; learning from them rather than loathing them. We also wanted to explore whether and how it is possible to run and supervise design projects online. The outcome shows that this approach can have great merits – for both students and teachers.