Dialectic and Result: How Dynamics and Interactions of Students' Workgroups Have Changed within Design Schools

The COVID pandemic, for a year now, has required and influenced a profound change in the teaching methods, tools, and dynamics at any school level. Moreover, relationships, interactions, and cooperation among students have also changed. Students in Design universities' courses are often asked to work in groups to ideate and design a product. In these cases, processes of dialogue and comparison between peers have undergone a clear modification, as tools and channels are concerned, and regarding the work organization and conduction, as well. This contribution intends to provide an initial reflection on the models of interaction and organization among Politecnico di Milano’s School of Design students. To define a representation of the online interactions among them during their workgroup activities, two different clusters of students have been selected: A) those who started their university experience during the pandemic period; B) and those who have at least one year of pre-pandemic attendance. A survey was designed. A questionnaire was sent to these two selected groups of students to collect information and details about any new routines acquired during the distance learning experience, dominant emotions and feelings, and even critical reflections on the new normality adopted. This segmentation has yielded structured evidence of the changes in the learning experience and in the collaboration between design students.