Drawing Tablet and Ergonomic Factors for Art and Design Online Learning

Universities have adopted Online Distance Learning (ODL) as a method of teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Educators applied a variety of strategies to ensure students get to complete their learning activities including completing their assessments. Giving students direct or indirect drawing or sketching demonstrations during online learning is a significant challenge for lecturers in the faculty of art and design. During ODL, lecturers are required to perform live demonstrations in front of a camera, recording the activity and uploading them on an online medium such as Google Classroom, YouTube, instant messaging application and social media sites like TikTok. This pushes lecturers to abandon traditional pencil and paper in favor of digital drawing software like Adobe Photoshop or Sketchbook Pro. To utilize this software, one must utilize a drawing tablet monitor, created specifically to make sketching tasks easier. Sketching tablet displays are frequently used in design fields. To determine the usefulness of this device, a survey was given to lecturers and students at College of Creative Arts at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Kedah. Based on 121 out of 150 respondents, the drawing tablet monitor is useful for delivering demonstrations during online teaching and learning activities. In addition, conclusion was made that ergonomics factors in the design of the drawing tablet monitor are essential to users since aspects of the design affect the human body. The ergonomic design of the drawing tablet monitor thereby enhances comfort, safety and productivity of users.