A COLLABORATIVE, ONLINE LEARNING MODEL FOR FASHION DESIGN

Under a global scenario of constant changes and uncertainty, of technological immersiveness, that permeates every aspect of life, traditional education models, supported by fixed, transmission-mode, teacher-centered pedagogies cannot solely fulfill the demands of the professional or academic settings. It is indispensable to study new models of learning, as well as more beneficial forms of using technological environments, tools, resources to implement a learning experience based on collaboratives, on knowledge construction and sharing, on alternative, contextualized and valid ways of assessment. It is also necessary to rethink learning in fashion design since it requires constant development and renewal of competencies to meet the rapid changes of the professional landscape, as well as the individual needs. Fashion design presupposes, like any design process, a learning capability, since it starts (or restarts) every season, every cycle, with the recognition of a problem: the need or the desire for what is new, cultivated by the taste for innovation, creativity, different, unknown. So, in order to keep updated, fashion designers form a sort of 'learning community', usually in online environments, around fashion information, ideas, resources, experiences, that are transmitted, shared, fed, promoted, redesigned, recreated or even admittedly copied. For this reason, it seemed necessary to examine alternative possibilities that foster collaborative online learning in fashion design. Part of broader research about fashion design in higher education contexts, this study presents a model for a fashion design collaborative online course structured on previously studied set of principles, and reinforced by Heutagogy, as the primary theoretical approach that emphasizes collaborative, contextualized, connected, constructive, lifelong, self-determining learning experiences. Although there is some debate whether learning in fashion design can happen in online environments, the main focus of this study was to establish a model for a fashion design collaborative online course based on a coherent theoretical structure, able to guide content, resource, delivery, assessment choices and to guarantee the learning quality. The model presented in this study is expected to enhance learning as a process, starting with interactions around a design problem and potentially evolving to form a learning community, virtually connected beyond the physical classrooms or the physical frontiers, stimulating innovative, meaningful and contextualized fashion design ideas and solutions.