The Mediated Edge Between Haptic and Virtual Learning

Paper

Our session looks at the process and methods required to create impactful tablet and phone-based learning resources that 'can live' at the intersection of face-to-face and virtual interactions- a true edge. We explore the potential for well-designed media, delivered through haptic devices, to amplify the face-to-face teaching/learning experience of second-year industrial design students who often require additional resources to help reinforce their learning. Student today seek out answers on youtube and other video channels often resulting in a wild mix of teaching/explaining styles that can serve to undermine learning outcomes. These resources can also be passive as they don't require students to act on them. While we believe that youtube is a great platform and has proved it's potential for impact on learning, we also feel it is time to further explore the edge between 'decent video tutorials' and the best possible media required to significantly impact and improve learning. We argue that a multi-modal engagement that combines reading text, viewing media (video, animation, audio), and interacting with 'discoverables' can be far more impactful than video watching alone. The edge that has opened up between the face-to-face and virtual will only grow as students and faculty become more comfortable with the presence of shared screens and 'mediated resources' designed to fill in the space between traditional learning and virtual learning.

Takeaway

The takeaway will be as follows- a case study highlighting a year-long process undertaken to define, develop, and test resources delivered through mobile technology for an industrial design program. Additionally we will discuss various experiments run over the course of the year-long project to create hybrid media types along with robust media templates necessary to speed up production of a broad array of multi-modal resources. We will discuss the challenges of using many different software and hardware to achieve the outcomes as well as the work required to design meaningful surveys that can capture useful information to drive production. We will also discuss the challenges of getting faculty and students involved/interested in a new format to improve and extend teaching and learning. Finally we will demonstrate the final products as well as early prototypes to illustrate the evolution of the concept from an idea to a reality.

Abstract

Learning in the near future, like nearly everything else in our world, will consist of equal doses of machine and human interactions. It simply won't be sufficient (or efficient) to rely on human-to-human interactions in a physical or virtual classroom to disseminate the information necessary for creating new knowledge. And while we currently rely partly on external resources to help shape and disperse information critical to knowledge creation, the future will work to speed up that scenario by focusing on new ways of maximizing the cognitive impact of media. The current bottom-up (web 2.0) platforms have demonstrated the sheer power and potential for any author to reach her potential audience by providing quality videos and animations that address specific needs. But is the content the best it can be? In other words, as online engagement with learning materials matures, as MOOCs become more commonplace, as micro learning and other trends push learning innovation forward, will it be enough to simply produce content that can be distributed through video channels alone? Our answer to that simple question is NO!

We believe that the future of learning involves multi-modal interactions with custom designed media delivered through tablets and mobile phones in combination with face-to-face classroom interactions that permit further exploration of that content. The way we propose to do this is to create interactive workbooks that focus on the key concepts central to the learning objectives. The workbooks used by instructors in the classroom are the very same resources in the student's possession creating a shared resource that can be accessed 24/7. The interactive workbooks consist of textual descriptions, video and animation-based explanations, audio, swipeable image galleries with captions, interactives, and quizzes/reviews. The focus is not only on key content but also the best delivery methods possible. It's becoming increasingly clear that the storytelling potential of media whether in the form of simple yet compelling textual prose or well-produced videos and animations when combined can have a true multiplier effect on learning. When the media are interspersed so that students are not simply watching a sequence of videos but having to read, interact, respond to quizzes or reviews, etc, the chance for meaningful engagement can improve in large part because the material is presented in a variety of formats permitting students to explore until they understand.

This ongoing project at Iowa State University focuses on creating customized tablet and phone-based content for use inside and outside the classroom to amplify the second-year experience within the industrial design curriculum. The initiators of this project will discuss the steps taken to identify the critical course content through surveys and conversations, build and test resources across a range of media, and prepare to test, assess, and refine the results. Discussion will also cover the process of integrating media assets into traditional learning management systems like Canvas.