EMERGE - Anthropology

 Cultural Understanding for an International Worklife 

Through long-term collaboration between the Department of Social Anthropology at NTNU and West University of Timisoara (UVT) teachers and researchers are experimenting with cross-cultural collaboration and cross-lecturing over distance. In this video teachers and researchers talk about their experiences from the collaboration, and especially about the joint-course exploration of using VR-technology and other kinds of technology as collaboration tools among students. The course focus on providing students ´hands-on´ experience with cross-cultural collaboration within fields of engineering and social sciences. Read more. 

Podcast episode on socio-professional communities


Report on the campus of the future (Fremtidens Campus)

How to facilitate socio-professional presence on a hybrid campus?
by Mathias Tømmervold, Håkon Fyhn, Heidi Grøholdt, Lila M. Clark and Mari Tanem.

This project explored the significance of of academic-social community on a campus characterized by hybrid meeting spaces. The goal is to provide insights into the design of the campus, as well as digital infrastructure and organization of teaching. Students' social communities are crucial for academic success, identity, mental health, completion, and recruitment. While there is extensive research on teaching situations and social life, less is known about the intersections and transitions between them, especially when they unfold in both physical and digital meeting places. Through an ethnographic approach, the project has followed a selected number of students in the interchange between teaching situations and various social contexts, and between physical and digital meeting spaces.

The project is a part of Fremtidens Campus at NTNU.


Roundtable panel debate podcasts


EMERGE - Archaeology

Archaeology, Department of Historical and Classical Studies, also leads the project Technology for Interdisciplinary Learning – From Test to Implementation (TeTL-TI) which is funded by Fremtidens Campus. The project wants to uncover the conditions that are required for larger interdisciplinary projects that explore new technology as a learning tool and how department-oriented initiatives can be implemented to develop learning practices on campus.

The archaeology program at NTNU has, for a long time, used various digital tools, both for student active learning, but also to give the students skills that are relevant in the industry. The students will hopefully enter a sector where they will use various digital tools (GIS, drone, photogrammetry, etc.), and various dissemination tools in workplaces such as museums, county councils and also in further educational or academic contexts. Through the HkDir project VR-Learn (2020), archeology collaborates with the owners of the project (Geography) with the aim of investigating how low-cost VR can be used in an educational context. In connection with this project, we have started to test the technology in different educational contexts at different stages of the BA and MA programs.

The use of VR in education is a pedagogical tool, which should contribute to increased understanding and give something extra to the learning experience. It also allows students to take on different roles as both consumers and producers of digital content, which gives a different meta-understanding of the funtionality of VR as a digital tool for learning and dissemination. Hear more about this on this podcast


TETL-TI: Technology for Cross-Professional Learning - from Testing to Implementation with VR- Technology
By Bergset, M., Seland, A., Cyvin, J. B., Stebergløkken, H., Callanan, M., Yildirim, K. L. 

The project aims to uncover what is required for larger interdisciplinary projects that focus on exploring technology as a learning tool and institution-oriented initiatives to be implemented in campus learning practices. Specifically, the project will use low-cost VR as a case study, examining how VR technology as a multiplicative learning form can transition from testing to implementation. They will investigate how to leverage active collaboration between technology, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), and Humanities and Social Sciences environments in terms of technology-supported teaching, exemplified through the use of VR.

The project will analyze the planning and strategic investment documents of the relevant department and faculty. By comparing project implementation, integration into teaching, and assessing barriers and success factors for project execution, they aim to uncover what future campuses need to maximize the benefits of projects and local initiatives. The project's results may provide a knowledge foundation that contributes to understanding how future campuses can be organized (such as common areas tailored for the use of various digital tools, resource prioritization, training of student staff, or similar) to achieve interdisciplinary collaboration and implementation.

The project is a part of Fremtidens Campus at NTNU.


EMERGE - Psychology

The Department of Psychology has developed VR-based scenarios to use in our teaching in a project funded by HRdir. These scenarios are concerned with the learning of soft skills, specifically conflict management, leadership, decision making, communication and oral presentation. In the scenarios the player in first- person perspective experience dealing with challenges related to these soft skills either as a leader or an employee. During the scenarios the player can make choices and experience the consequences of these. 

The scenarios are filmed with a 360-camera using real life actors with the help of Section for Teaching and Learning Support at NTNU. The scenarios are based on characters and stories from the book Praktisk Organisasjonpsykologi (Practical Organizational psychology) written by Ingvild Saksvik-Lehouillier and Jonas Vaag, published in 2020. We have evaluated the effect of these immersive VR scenarios compared with a flat desktop version, on affect and sense of presence. Results are published in an article coming out soon, and the data from the project is available for the public in Sikt – the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research (https://doi.org/10.18712/NSD-NSD3101-V1). We are working on implementing these scenarios into our teaching.


EMERGE - Geography


Coming soon....