18/03/2025
This case study (Mahon and Willcocks, 2023) seeks to understand two things:
- How object-based and experiential learning can be translated for delivery online.
- How object based and experiential learning can help students understand complex issues, in this instance the intersections of colonialism and the climate crisis.
I chose this text to learn about OBL online. However, when reading, I became more interested in the critical thinking it can enable.
In their evaluation of delivering haptic and experiential learning online, Mahon and Willcock identify the following:
Successes include teaching wider and larger audiences and using multimodal communication to facilitate meaningful discussion online.
Notable challenges include unequal access to technology and networks, screen exhaustion, poor focus and difficulty communicating online.
Overall, translation for online delivery is deemed successful, although sessions shouldn’t last longer than two hours to give “breathing space for understanding to develop” (Mahon and Willcocks, 2023, p. 201) and students must have a focal point “as it is through conversation and active engagement that learning outcomes are clarified and reinforced” (Mahon and Willcocks, 2023, p. 202). They conclude “when encountered online, objects still have the capacity to tell powerful stories and make abstract concepts more concrete for the learner” (Mahon and Willcocks, 2023, p. 202).
The study also shows that OBL promotes critical awareness. This observation is supported by literature:
- Chatterjee at al. argue for “the potential of object-based learning to address troublesome knowledge, make abstract concepts more concrete for learners and develop a range of transferable skills including research, analysis and critical thinking” (Chatterjee at al., 2013 cited in Mahon and Willcocks, 2023, p. 189)
- Steele (1998) states that object-based research is “the most valuable generator of knowledge production” (Steele, 1998 cited in Mahon and Willcocks, 2023, p. 190)
- Lange and Willcocks believe OBL has “an increasingly important role to play in contributing to the decolonial agenda” (Lange and Willcocks, 2021 cited in Mahon and Willcocks, 2023, p. 190)
I find the workshop analysed for this case study very inspirational. “Encouraging students to explore the impact of colonialism on the current climate crisis through the lens of eighteenth- and nineteenth- century botanical drawings” offers a clever entry point for thinking about complex and challenging issues. It also includes examples of good teaching practice, including:
- Using visual analysis to build critical engagement – e.g. plants in botanical illustrations are often isolated “which encouraged them to be viewed purely in terms of potential economic exploitation rather than as parts of a symbiotic ecosystem” (Mahon and Willcocks, 2023, p. 192).
- Scaffolding questions to support student agency – e.g. asking several questions the first being “What do you know about who produced this object” and the last “How does your understanding of global power dynamics influence your understanding of the object?” (Mahon and Willcocks, 2023, p. 193)
- Teaching across formats to ensure diversity of learning experience – e.g. asking students to add object-based research to an interactive digital map “which inevitably evidenced the ongoing impact of environmental exploitation in previously colonized nations” (Mahon and Willcocks, 2023, p. 193)
There is lots of food for thought here and I look forward to digesting ideas to disseminate through my own teaching practice. I have also identified further reading (see photos below).
References
Mahon, K. and Willcocks, J. (2023) The potential of online object-based learning activities to support the teaching of intersectional environmentalism in art and design higher education in Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education, Vol 22 / Issue 2, (October 2023), pp. 187 – 207
