  Digital fabrication courses that relied on physical makerspaces were severely
disrupted by COVID-19. As universities shut down in Spring 2020, instructors
developed new models for digital fabrication at a distance. Through interviews
with faculty and students and examination of course materials, we recount the
experiences of eight remote digital fabrication courses. We found that learning
with hobbyist equipment and online social networks could emulate using
industrial equipment in shared workshops. Furthermore, at-home digital
fabrication offered unique learning opportunities including more iteration,
machine tuning, and maintenance. These opportunities depended on new forms of
labor and varied based on student living situations. Our findings have
implications for remote and in-person digital fabrication instruction. They
indicate how access to tools was important, but not as critical as providing
opportunities for iteration; they show how remote fabrication exacerbated
student inequities; and they suggest strategies for evaluating trade-offs in
remote fabrication models with respect to learning objectives.

Human-Computer Interaction