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.
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.
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.