[Erasmus+ KA2 – Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices | KA226 – Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness | 01-05-2021 – 30-04-2023]
Background
The ErasmusXr project “Experience and immersive technologies – from creative practice to educational Theory” was prepared for the special call KA226 – Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness during the COVID-19 pandemic. When preparing the project in the summer of 2020, we did not yet know how the pandemic would develop and how long it would last.
Nevertheless, we were experiencing more and more the development of digital technologies (including immersive technologies), which is now called WEB 4.0 and virtual worlds
(https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_3718 ). The COVID-19 epidemic reduced our social activity by locking us in our homes and led to an unprecedented activity in the digital world, forcing not only entire areas of culture and education to move their activities into the virtual realm, but also to seek new ways to engage and enhance participation in this form. This was the main external factor motivating us to undertake the project. Therefore, a project was prepared that addressed the urgent need to enrich existing educational programs for both cultural and media managers, but also for artists aspiring to connect with audiences in the digital space.
Objectives
The main goals of the project were:
1. To develop educational offerings for cultural and media managers and artists on new immersive technologies such as XR, VR, AR, MR and how to use to engage audiences, and
2. Increase skills and competencies in designing and evaluating experiences using immersive technologies to effectively manage culture in the digital realm.
To achieve these goals, we decided to focus on increasing the knowledge and competence of academic staff on immersive experience design and evaluation through the implementation of training courses, the development of open educational resources (OER) on the topic of immersive experience management in culture (IO3 and IO4), but also building an open attitude among students and staff to new methods and technologies – offering participation in a summer and winter school.
We believed that we would be able to achieve this, but we did not anticipate that under such difficult conditions the project would become popular and recognized throughout Europe. Due to the specific moment, we managed to join the mainstream of change and become a positive example illustrating the HE sector’s activities in XR and Virtual Worlds development.
Implementation
In the project we implemented:
– Training activities (C1 and C6) carried out by partners from Greece and Malta due to their experience and extensive technical and human resources,
– a summer school organized in Malta,
– winter school – as a test of the Jagiellonian University whether it will be able to implement the courses on its own,
As well as we developed as the results of our work in groups (WG) under the guidance of the coordinator (WGC) following outputs:
IO1 – curriculum, WGC: Dr. Katarzyna Kopeć UJ
IO2 – syllabuses of 6 courses on immersive technologies, WGC: Dr. Marta Materska- Samek UJ
IO3 – Open educational resources – collection on Zotero, WGC: Dr. Adnan Hadzi MU,
IO4 – Handbook: experience management and immersive technologies in the form of a collection of articles in two volumes of the quarterly journal Media Management, ed./WGC: Dr. Anna Modzelewska and Dr. Malwina Popiołek.
In addition, there were 4 project meetings (TPM) and two dissemination events (E1 in Lodz, E2 in Greece).
Results
The particular outcome of the project is the improvement of the knowledge of academic staff and the development by them of work (IOs) that allow the introduction of new content of the education. The package of results consists of the development of the program (IO1) syllabuses IO2, OER – IO3 for the following topics included in the form of courses:
1. introduction to CinematicVR (including the language of CinematicVR, comparison with the language of film, working with an actor, staging): WGC: Prof. Krzysztof Pijarski ŁFS,
2. Immersive experience level 1 – generated environments (digital scenery, virtual studio, 6 degrees of freedom) – WGC: Dr. Adnan Hadzi MU, Dr. Filip Pudło ŁFS – 2 ECTS
3. immersive experience level 2 – design and evaluation – WGC: Prof. Dimitris Charitos NKUA – 2 ECTS
4. production management (workflow) – WGC: Marta Materska-Samek JU/ Dr. Małgorzata Kotlińska ŁFS (tbc) – 2 ECTS
5. VR financing: green production, business models and European policies- WGC: Dr. Marta Materska-Samek JU- 2 ECTS
6. legal, social and political aspects of immersive media production- WGC: Dr. Marzena Baranska JU- 4 ECTS
Each WGC had 4- 8 people who had their own workspace on teams/sharepoint and met mainly online, but also during LTT.
Partners
Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, Panstwowa Wyzsza Szkola Filmowa, Telewizyjna I Teatralna Im. Leona Schillera W Lodzi, Universita Ta Malta, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens