Design Tension Studio — Instructor Guide

A walkthrough for instructors running Design Tension Studio in a course — from creating a case to reading engagement analytics.

The operating model in one line: you create and publish a case;
students join with a course code, explore the map, and leave nodes,
questions, notes, and reflections; you manage cases and watch engagement
from the My Course view.

Step 1 · Create and publish a case

Sign in at https://swarm-id-en.pages.dev with your instructor account. In the intake panel on the left:

1. Paste a course brief (a design scenario, syllabus excerpt, policy note...).
2. Click create — the AI converts it into a structured case:

stakeholders, constraints, and issues become a map.

1. New cases start as drafts; publish to make them visible to

students.

Per-case board settings control max student nodes, AI expansions per node, class sharing mode, and the student-view lockdown (network-only).

Step 2 · Manage from "My Course"

The My Course view in the sidebar is your management hub:

• Join code with one-tap copy — students enter it on the landing page
• Case list with status (published / draft / archived) and per-case

participation summary (students · nodes · notes)

• Student interaction analytics (step 4)

Step 3 · Curate: publish, archive, delete

Each case row offers five actions:

Once any student has worked in a case, the delete button is disabled and archiving is the only way to tidy up — by design, so semester data can't be destroyed accidentally. Archived cases reappear under "Show archived" and can be restored anytime.

Step 4 · Read the engagement analytics

The analytics block at the bottom of My Course aggregates the interaction log (60s cache, refresh button):

• KPI row: active students / nodes / questions / notes / reflections
• Engagement funnel: enrolled → signed in → opened a case → explored

lenses → contributed → submitted reflection. The drop between stages is your intervention point — if students open but rarely contribute, run a node-adding activity in class.

• Lens switches: which stakeholder lenses students visit — low-share

lenses (often Admin, Accessibility) are good candidates for explicit discussion.

• Per-student table: name · last active · nodes · questions · notes ·

reflections — spot quiet students early.

The Report view's class analysis panel adds per-case progress with a section filter.

Step 5 · Live classroom patterns

When students keep the same case open, a "viewing now" count appears and their nodes stream onto everyone's map in real time. A pattern that works:

1. Project your screen and switch to the Class view layer
2. Ask students to add the concerns the case is missing
3. Watch nodes accumulate live, then discuss the recurring issues (grouped

with counts) and the minority voices together

Students see the What to do now banner, so the flow runs without much explanation; first-time classes get the welcome slides + guided tour automatically in the first five minutes.

Step 6 · Print the discussion guide

In My Course, press a case's "Discussion guide" button and a printable one-pager is generated automatically — the case constraints, the stakeholder interlock points worth projecting, the issues your class repeated (with counts), the minority voices (with author names), and the under-visited lens, each scene paired with a ready-to-use talk move.

One minute before class and your discussion script for the day is ready. The more question rounds your students have run, the richer it gets.

Operating tips

• iPad classes: have students use Safari share (⬆️) → "Add to Home

Screen" — full-screen app, touch-optimized.

• A student can't sign in: accounts must exist beforehand; one email to

the operator adds a missing student in about a minute.

• Students can't see a case: check it's published — drafts and archived

cases are hidden.

• New semester: archive last term's cases; student records remain

available for research analysis.