eLearning and eMaking in product design education

Creating proactive learners in design education requires inspiring students to think for themselves, to look beyond the classroom and see the opportunities and challenges in the outside world. As blended learning becomes part of design education, a rise in digital technologies allows an innovative thinking approach to eLearning that includes eMaking. This has the potential to have a transformative effect on learning, making it possible to move to a more collaborative form of learning as students and lecturers explore the possibilities of new technologies together, supporting a change in the relationship of students to lecturers, and a change in attitude to the way students see themselves and their own learning. This paper describes an example of how an open approach to technology in the classroom, supporting eLearning and eMaking, contributes to the personal and professional development of design students and develops the role of the lecturer in response to current thinking in learning and teaching in higher education.