Hello, it’s Team-Eye here!

Have you ever wondered about how the pandemic transformed distance learning in universities? What about the consequences and the solutions we proposed?

What’s the context?

Teaching and learning online can be challenging when it comes to engagement and motivation of the students. Current research in this field shows that students often access an online environment with stress and lack of motivation because of the practicalities of online interaction and collaboration and because they experience it as a “boring” process. Specifically, they find themselves feeling like outsiders or even cut off while, at the same time, they juggle their time between resolving the logistics of their studies and digesting content. Especially over the last two years, we globally experienced the implementation of online learning and emergency remote teaching to address closures in schools and universities, postponements or even cancellations of conferences and other organized events due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The promotion of flexible ways of studying aimed at hindering the rapid spread of the virus and, despite the reported challenges by teachers and students, it has revealed several opportunities for the “higher education of tomorrow”, through the combination of physical and online presence for collaboration, communication and development of the sense of belonging among the student population. With discussions now occurring about how campuses are going to reopen, academic libraries face a paradigm shift. Instead of returning to the “old normal”, library staff aim for a different online student experience, where students can join forces with other students and use peer-to-peer guidance during their study sessions.

What’s our aim?

The design challenge is to enhance the Online Study Space of the UvA & HvA to improve (1) the onboarding, (2) learning, and (3) engagement & (4) belonging experience of students in the platform.
The project “Online Study Space” aims to address the above-mentioned challenges of university students, through the use of gamification, social media, virtual reality and mindful web design integrated with a fidget cube that traces students’ emotions online, as new and flexible methods for involving students in actively collaborating and interacting online when using the library services. In particular, we propose activities with Gathertown, Mozilla Hubs, Instagram filters, the redesign of Online Study Space through a mindful digital-physical experience as means to improve student engagement.

Our process and prototypes

With the aim of meeting the 4 end goals, we worked on 4 digital prototypes validated by literature review, qualitative research, and data analysis.

Co-operative Monster Hunt

TECHNOLOGIES >> Gathertown

As rapidly evolving technological applications, games are already widely integrated in the traditional educational process. They are deployed extensively in the field of education, with an existing body of work examining the relation between games and education. This includes educational games, digital game-based learning (DGBL) , and applied games. In addition, scholars, sometimes, include interactive exercises, video games, or even expand to next generation video games. In the context of online education in particular, games have attracted a significant amount of interest from the scientific and educational community, including tutors, students and game designers. With the growing expansion of technology, instructors and those who create educational policy are interested in introducing innovative technological tools, such as video games, virtual worlds, and Massive Multi-Player Online Games. In the OSS project we focused on the use of Gathertown as a means to increase student engagement and motivation in using the online services provided by the two universities.

Online Study Space adv

TECHNOLOGIES >> SparkAR – Instagram filters (Augmented Reality)

Social media, likewise digital technologies and environments, are playing a fundamental role besides entertainment and informational purposes, especially in the youngest generations, and the education field has faced an accelerated and forced adaptational development, due to the pandemic.
Current education systems should be observed with awareness to design coherently every possible dimension, exploiting the possibilities between pedagogy and digital engagement strategies. One way to raise awareness is to investigate, research, and question ourselves and our past choices: for instance, what is learning, and when does it happen? The learning goal is developed by students’ engagement in recursive processes that combine experiences, abstractions, inferences, problem solutions, and recombination of information. Everything mentioned above can happen in learning spaces, both physical and digital, giving life to digital communities, specialized portals and platforms where information can be disseminated.
Our review of the literature demonstrated that it is possible to use social media for education on multiple levels, but only through active and creative learning experiences that allow students to develop the necessary competencies for gaining a positive role in the uncertain and rapidly evolving future. Within the OSS project, we aimed to apply these strategies by integrating Instagram (IG) filters to enhance student engagement of the students.

Rollercoaster Fidget Cube

TECHNOLOGIES >> Arduino – 3D printing

With the aim of tracing students’ emotions, we also proposed our clients an oversized fidget cube filled with an Arduino breadboard, capable of keeping track of the movements of hands and fingers while manipulating the object and its buttons. The concept behind the prototype exploits natural nervous actions almost everyone experienced.

SDGs

Our project tackles several issues, well explained by the Sustainable Development Goals of United Nations, the “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face”. Project OSS focuses on four of these goals:

3 – Good Health and Well-being

4 – Quality Education

5 – Gender Equality

10 – Reduced Inequalities