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Paper short abstract:

This study compares student-instructor interactions in online and in-person crafting workshops, analysing how recruitment and assistance practices are adapted in digital settings. It highlights shifts from embodied monitoring to verbal check-ins in online workshops.

Paper long abstract:

As the pandemic shifted classrooms online, even non-traditional settings like crafting workshops adapted. The innovation artists presented allowed them to stay in business and offered individuals an opportunity to learn new skills during challenging times. This study, born from this transition, examines how instructors convey manual skills in digital versus physical spaces.

Drawing from 55 hours of online and in-person video-recorded workshop data, this research contrasts student-instructor interactions in online and in-person workshops. It focuses on students’ recruitment practices and the instructors’ responsive strategies. The current study presents a quantitative comparison, of the difference in practices in these two forms of workshop delivery: online and in-person.

In online workshops, limited visibility and lack of a shared physical space constrains instructors' and students' spatial interaction, prompting instructors to rely more heavily on verbal check-ins than physical monitoring. However, the camera’s proximity introduces unique practices like peering, which are more visible to the instructor as an embodied display of trouble.

In this paper, I present preliminary results from the comparative study. I will evaluate the effectiveness of the practices deployed by the participants within the crafting classroom, and consider what we can learn about online interaction and the practices for requesting and providing assistance. By doing so, it contributes to the broader discourse on digital learning environments, offering insights into the tactile and sensorial dimensions of online education.