The experience of drawing courses in higher education large classes during the covid-19 pandemic scenario

Representation techniques -in particular freehand drawing- in the Product Designer’s activity play a fundamental role in describing the different phases of the project development: the “ideational” phase, the “intermediate” phase, and the “technical - documental” one. Because of this role, at Politecnico di Milano Design School we are trying to improve the effectiveness of representation courses by innovation in teaching activities used with relatively large classes. The process started during the academic year 2017/2018 with the revision of two foundational courses of the first year of BSc in Product Design: “Drawing Studio” and “Methods and Instruments for Design”. In March 2020, the covid-19 pandemic forced us to change the methodologies and tools quickly. Some methods and tools used in the emergency have performed above expectations. This work aims to describe methods and tools used in a fully online teaching environment having to teach a “hands-on” subject such as freehand drawing in large classes.