Fab Academy is an experimental, de-centralized education model that has produced hundreds of innovative prototypes around the world over the past 7 years. This framework reveals the dynamics of this collaborative learning culture. The purpose is to provide a reference for any Fab Lab, maker space, school, studio, business or organization to deepen their engagement with digital fabrication technology.

1. Making Culture
Community Engagement Framework
for Digital Fabrication
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Research by Jasmin Cheng
Presented by Jasmin Cheng & Wendy Neale
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Presented on August 4, 2015
FAB11 at Bartos Theatre, MIT Media Lab
Graphics generated on Fabrika App by Anna Oguienko

2. “The power of Digital Fabrication
is social, not technical.”
- Neil Gershenfeld

3. What is the purpose of this research?
To propose a community engagement
framework for digital fabrication.
Why is this important?
Fab Academy is an experimental, de-centralized education model that
has produced hundreds of innovative prototypes around the world
over the past 7 years. This framework reveals the dynamics of this
collaborative learning culture. The purpose is to provide a reference
for any Fab Lab, maker space, school, studio, business or organization
to deepen their engagement with digital fabrication technology.

4. Methodology
This paper is based on 12 hours of interviews
with 2 instructors and 6 students of Fab Lab
Wgtn. The researcher also includes her
personal experience from 6 months
participation in Fab Academy 2015. The
interview data has been hand coded for
thematic saturation.
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The author's intent is to share this initial
theory with other Fab Lab members at Fab11.
Based on the discussions started at Fab11,
the author will further develop the theory by
studying labs and studios around the world,
and literature reviews.

5. Controlled Self-Organized
The Path to Self-Organization
One of the most striking observations that came out of this research was how the
lab culture was transformed in 6 months from one that was controlled by the
instructors to one that was self-organized, with equal accountability distributed
amongst the instructors and the students.

6. A Framework for Self-Organization
There are 3 layers to a self-organizing culture. Each layer builds upon the
strengths of the last. If the group dynamic is weak in one layer, it may
implicate the other layers.
Controlled Self-Organized
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• Functional
• Organizational
• Communication
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• Group Agreements
• Peer Learning
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• Mutual Appreciation
• Group Projects
Trust
Affinity
Reciprocity
Open offering and
acceptance of help support
to achieve common goals
Nurture relationships to create new
opportunities for everyone to
contribute to the experience
Build a structure that brings clarity
and accountability to the group

7. The Importance of Establishing Trust
Trust is earned when students believe that the structure of the experience is
biased towards their success.
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Every student needs to be free to experiment and make mistakes while also feeling safe and supported.
At this early stage, instructors are driven to set a strong example - from how to use the machines, how
to follow workflows, and when and where to communicate.

8. Quotes on Establishing Trust
“Everything was so well organized. When you
first arrive, you don’t know exactly what’s going
to happen, they say you have class on Thursday,
and then that’s it. I thought we’d be on our own,
but we weren’t. We were so well supported.”
“We were teaching you how to navigate, to
filter. Fab Academy is so heavily process based,
it’s important to establish a clear workflow from
the outset. We’d basically go through a
module step-by-step to determine what
needed to happen first and how to roll it out.”
“You’ve got someone who’s kind of
managing your progress. You’ve got
someone who really wants you to succeed
and looking out for how you’re feeling.
And you’ve got someone who wants you
to be motivated. There’s not a lot of room
for slacking, which is good.”
“Don’t assume that people know how to work
in a group, how to contribute, or how to
withdraw.”
“The best bits of uni without all the crappy bits.”

9. Establishing Trust | Functional Structure
Create a functional structure
that makes everyone feel safe
and supported.
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• Providing clean workstations and
personal storage space for every
student
• Ensuring the fab inventory is stocked
so that the students have everything
they need
• Planning hands-on demo’s and
tutorials to get everyone familiar with
the workflows and software

10. Establishing Trust | Organizational Structure
Create organizational structure to
manage group and individual
progress and to ensure learning
objectives are met.
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• Planning ahead to fill knowledge gaps both
inside and outside the lab
• Setting up regular reviews (both local and global)
to make sure students have the opportunity to
reflect on their progress in context of the big
picture
• Keeping track of student progress by assessing
the student’s work and documentation on a
weekly basis

11. Establishing Trust | Communications Structure
Create clear a communications
structure to keep everyone
informed and connected inside
and outside of the lab.
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• Establishing a space where instructors
and students can share information, ideas
and resources that are related specifically
to the program
• Providing a central file sharing platform
that allows students to exchange working
files and photos for both individual and
group projects
• Opening up communication channels for
students to engage with each other

12. Social Network Common Uses Local Regional Global
Google+
• Official source of local Fab Academy updates and information
• Shared useful links to learning resources
• Students used Google Drive to share project files and photos
• Hashtags were used to keep content organized
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Email
• Official source of global Fab Academy updates and information
• Often misused for individual project support
• Students would reply to questions if they had experience to share
X
MCU
• Official video conferencing channel
• Regional reviews
• Remote student meetings
• Regional instructor meetings
X X
Facebook
• Facebook messaging was more reliable than Google+ messages
• Students engaged lightly with global, regional and local groups
• Students shared their project progress with their personal networks
X X X
HipChat
• Official chat platform to connect students during lectures and reviews
• High usage at launch, slowly faded
• Some students were able to made contact with regional peers due to
time zone similarity
X X
Twitter
• #fabacademy hashtag allowed global students to connect
• Live-tweeting of final project presentations increased engagement
X
Instagram
• #fabacademy hashtag allowed global students to connect
• Some students used Instagram video to document project progress -
received support and motivation from global students
X
Establishing Trust | Communications Structure

13. The Importance of Nurturing Affinity
Encouraging personal relationships to develop creates new opportunities
for everyone to contribute to the whole experience.
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Building relationships with likeminded people within the lab or within the network helped
motivate and inspire the students. These connections were often encouraged, but never forced.
This is the transitional stage in the path toward self-organization.

14. Quotes on Nurturing Affinity
“I see my role as providing the space and the
resources, and enable Fab Academy students
to succeed. It was more important for me to
make sure that people were working together,
talking to each other and being inspired. It’s
easy to teach them how to use the machines,
or how to program. The fun bit is working
together. That was my focus.”
“It’s really cool to be able to feed off
other people’s enthusiasm and awesome
projects; to be inspired by their solutions
to the same problems, and to be
collectively going through it.”
“We all improved so much; just an incredible
amount. It’s crazy to see that amount of growth at
the same time as you’re experiencing it yourself.“
“It’s a cyclical way of learning. You start out
with something absolutely tiny, build off that
small achievement to get on the road to
bigger achievements. That was one of the
best things I learned in the process, that I
want to carry on with.“

15. Group Agreements
Leave it how you would like to find it
Reserve the right to tell your own story
Everyone can be a wizard
Create your own context
Take care of each other
Look after yourself
Win together
If you don’t understand, say it
Failing to plan is planning to fail
Nurturing Affinity | Group Agreements
Affinity between individuals deepened as
everyone started to take responsibility of the
culture that was being created.
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• Ensuring that everyone knows how to work within the
group, how to contribute or how to withdraw
• Creating a time and place for the group to talk about
what is working or not working about the culture
• Fighting resistance to these kinds of conversations by
encouraging the students to share their own experiences
and suggestions on how to make things better

16. Group Agreement What it means Resulting behaviour
Leave it how you would like to find it
To emphasize every individual’s responsibility to
keep workspaces, machines and communal spaces
accessible and functional.
• Cleaner work surfaces
• Weekly clean-up sessions
• Well-maintained machines
Reserve the right to tell your own story To respect each other’s privacy
• Students sought other students and instructors in documentation
• Students sought permission before posting photos and links of other
students and instructors online
Everyone can be a wizard To recognize each student’s strengths
• Students sought help from other students
• Students stepped up and leading projects
• Instructors entrusted greater responsibilities upon students
Create your own context
To remind students that they have the resources to
establish a context before asking for help
• Students would conduct their own research before asking for help to
solve problems
• Students asked more informed questions
• Instructors had a greater understanding of the challenges the students
were facing and supported them appropriately
Take care of each other
Fab Labs can be dangerous with so many students
doing so many things
• Students would pair up when using unfamiliar machines for the first time
• Students would remind other students to wear protective gear and safety
processes
• Instructors had increased confidence that students would behave safely
during off hours
Look after yourself
Fab Academy is fast paced and demanding course
and it was important for students to actively
maintain their wellbeing
• Students organized their lab schedules based on individual styles and
approaches
• Students took breaks to enjoy life
• Students and instructors hosted social events to give everyone an
opportunity to step away from projects and assignments
Win together
With students of such diverse skills, it was important
to reinforce the fact that everyone in the group
needed each other to succeed in Fab Academy
• Students made time to help other students catch-up on assignments
• Students self-organized on collaborative projects that would meet their
common goals
• Students demonstrated great enthusiasm and support for each other’s
work during regional and global reviews
• Students acknowledged that they could not have completed Fab
Academy without the support of the group
If you don’t understand, say it To remove fear or shame in asking questions
• Students identified gaps in their knowledge and were able to quickly
close those gaps
• Instructors could quickly direct students towards solutions and resources
Failing to plan is planning to fail
To remind students not to take on the stress of
others who failed to prepare appropriately for
assignments and projects
• Students took responsibility of their own project planning and
development
• Instructors trusted the students to complete assignments and projects

17. Time Spent
The Infinite Internet
Previous Class Documentation
Peers
“The Wizards”
Peer-learning removes the
ownership of teaching from the
students and distributes it
amongst everyone.
Establish a basic understanding on a
topic in a vast sea of information.
Check past Fab Academy documentation
for solutions to common problems.
Talk to peers to see what solutions they may have
found to common problems.
“The Wizards” are the experts who are most likely to
know the solution of your problem, but whose time to
help you is most limited.
Nurturing Affinity | Peer Learning
This model gave the group a common approach to finding solutions
to problems by reaching out to each other for help, which created
whole new opportunities for the students to engage in each other’s
learning experience.

18. The Importance of Reciprocity
Reciprocity is the open offering and acceptance of help and
support without expectation for direct repayment.
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Through the spirit of reciprocity, students reported feeling increasingly invested in each
other’s success, and self-organized collaborations evolved based on common goals.

19. Quotes on Reciprocity
“I don’t think I could have passed with
any one person not taking the course. I
don’t know if it’s just extreme luck on all of
our behalf, or it’s the culture behind it.“
“I helped as much as anyone else. We’re all
100% responsible for each other’s
growth. We’re all intermingled in our helping
of each other, it’s kind of like we’re not even
individual people.”
“I couldn’t have done what I achieved without
everyone else in the class. Can’t imagine doing it
without even one person in the group.”
“Group culture is about reciprocity: you work
alongside each other, and it comes back.”

20. Reciprocity| Mutual Appreciation
By encouraging everyone to be
“Wizards”, the group could recognize
and appreciate each other for their
unique strengths.
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Reciprocity is possible when everyone feels like
they have something to contribute. At the
beginning of the program, students reported
feelings of guilt when asking for help because they
believed they had nothing to offer in return. As
every participant found opportunities to be a
“Wizard”, feelings of guilt was replaced by
openness and helpfulness.
Technical
Wizards
• Programming
• Electronics
• Troubleshooting
• Software
• Engineering
(The Maths)
Social Wizards
Design
Wizards
• Ideas
• Concepts
• Solutions
• Form
• Function
• Aesthetics
• Materials
• Empathy
• Motivation
• Encouragement
• Positive Attitude
• Communication
• Facilitation

21. Reciprocity| Group Projects
Self-organized projects are the result of a healthy fab culture. They were reported to
be more efficient and rewarding than controlled group projects because the students
were intrinsically motivated in the success of the project, they could be more creative
in their workflow and approach, which led to more innovative solutions.
LevelofCollaboration
Vinyl Cutting
Machine Building
Networking
Babeduino
Controlled Self-Organized

22. Reciprocity| Group Projects
Vinyl Cutting Machine Building Networking Babeduino
Objective
To create a vinyl sticker mural as
a group
To build a machine as a group To connect nodes in a network
To design and make a
Fabduino
Collaboration Not mandatory Mandatory Not mandatory Not mandatory
Process
• Sticker templates were
provided to each student as
AI files
• Students learned how to use
the vinyl cutter
• Instructor placed the stickers
and created mural in lab
• Class worked together to
determine feature set
• Broke into groups to develop
machine parts
• Members from each team
worked together on
troubleshooting and
completing assignment
• Class worked together to
define network protocol
• Individuals developed their
own node boards
• Even though collaboration
wasn’t mandatory, students
needed each other to
complete assignment
• 4 students with common
need self-organized into a
group
• Each student took on tasks
throughout the electronics
design, production and
troubleshooting process
based on individual strengths
Strengths
• Students learned about each
other through self-expression
• Students could choose to
work on the parts of the
machine that were most
personally interesting
• Strong collaboration -
opportunity to work with /
learn from peers with
different skill sets
• Strong motivation to
collaborate
• Students who were first to
complete their nodes were
motivated help and network
with other students
• Strong sense of ownership
• Students
• Less frustration and faster
iterations than on previous
electronics projects
Limitations
• No collaboration occurred
because it was not a
requirement for the
assignment
• Every student completed the
assignment at a different time
• Some students only did the
minimum required to fulfill
assignment criteria, leaving
the work of assembly and
troubleshooting to a smaller
group of students
• Protocol was too complex for
most students to
comprehend
• Some students could not
finish this project on their
own
• May not scale to larger group

23. !
Fab Labs can teach us more than how to use
machines. The culture of the lab can influence how
communities learn and explore the possibilities of
digital fabrication together.
Key Learning

24. My hope is that this framework will help labs around the
world to engage people from all walks of life, education
and professional backgrounds, abilities and disabilities,
to learn to make (almost) anything.

25. Thank you! Questions?
http://www.slideshare.net/jasmincheng/making-culture
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Keep in touch!
@min_o
jasmin.cheng@gmail.com