Teresa Consiglio

1. Human computer interaction aspects in relation to cultural differences in an adult distance learning community Teresa Consiglio

2. Content • Introduction • Motivation • Approach • Field study • Results • Follow up

3. Adoption of innovation in learning Innovations CMS LMS IMS LD culture generation serious games wiki Adoption mail SCORM forums style of learning virtual classrooms

4. Innovations, why and for whom?

5. Innovations, beyond fashion • Because: • Fashion changes • State of art becomes yesterday’s news • Education is a process to help people to get the best out of themselves

6. Innovations • …can make services • More efficient, economic and effective, • More available, funny and... easy!

7. Thomas L. Friedman

8. Long tail Chris Anderson - The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More (ISBN 1-4013-0237-8) Source: www.oracledigital.com.au

9. Motivation • Some people are early adopters and others are slow adopters of technology, but that should not influence their chances in future education. • The facilities, how modern or antique, should support the widest range of people possible, independently of their origin, culture of generation they belong to. • The goal is to offer a shared digital learning environment for a wide range of learners with a manageable amount of complexity without being complicated.

10. Approach • Across cultures • Iterative development • Learning service • Guidance from the teacher • Technology • Contents • Open Source

11. Field study:course of Service design • The opportunity: • Bachelor curriculum “Design” • 10 ECs, 250 hours of student time • Service design differs from artifacts' design • No courses available yet • Publications on (mostly UK) government visions

12. Context of the course • Bachelor curriculum “Design” • 10 ECs, 250 hours of student time • Teaching and resources in English for Italian students • Meetings: 2 days (12 hours) every 2 weeks • Lab meetings in between • tutor to help • Blended learning

13. Theory based application of techniques use of techniques with the understanding of relevant theoretical concepts concepts from multiple disciplines pragmatic approach towards theory: understand why a technique or tool is developed

14. Service Design should involve multiple Types of Stakeholders • the client of design (often a service provider); • suppliers to the service provider; • staff categories of the service provider; • related governmental institutes; • related other services; • service users (customers)

15. Service Design should involve multiple Types of Stakeholders • collaborate with all stakeholder groups during the whole design process, • apply representation techniques for understanding and communication between different types of professionals and user groups, • need insight in professional and social cultures of these groups.

16. Service design learning goals Understand • Concept of services in networked society • User & stakeholder centered service design • Cultural issues for meaning and use of services Know: • How to find new relevant knowledge and tools • Relevant design approach Experience: • Team design for real client

17. Design Space • Clients often appreciate special qualities and uniqueness • Customers of our clients value being treated special • We choose clients with a suitable size for the student level and available time • Students work in “competing” teams, aiming at a “different” quality design, not the “best” design

18. View on adult academic learning Vygotsky: social nature of human learning Bruner: culture is core element in learning • not teacher’s dictate; but learners’ … • discovery, elaboration, integration of experiences • confrontation/collaboration with peers and expert resources

19. View on the teacher role • Challenge our students to discover and to critique • No prescribed single / best method, tool, or technique • Underscore importance of context & culture for choices • Provide alternative solutions • Provide examples of previous student solutions • Show value of creativity and design space

20. Learning resources • DUTCH • Service Design Tools • Hofstede • Cultural Survival Kit

21. Learning resources • DUTCH • Service Design Tools • Hofstede • Cultural Survival Kit

22. Design for Users and Tasks from Concepts to Handles • Iterative: • Analysis • Envisioning • Specification • Assessment

23. Learning resources • DUTCH • Service Design Tools • Hofstede • Cultural Survival Kit

30. Learning resources • DUTCH • Service Design Tools • Hofstede • Cultural Survival Kit

31. Geert Hofstede – CulturalDimensions • Power Distance: do we accept inequalities in power? • Individualism: what is more important? The individual’s interest of that of the collectivity? • Masculinity: do we prefereseparationgenderrolesorconvergence? • UncertaintyAvoidment Index: Is uncertaintyseen as dangerousorthrilling? • Long Term Orientation: what is more important? Short-termsuccessorsuccess in the future?

32. A comparison • The NetherlandsvsItaly • Similar scores • Oneexception: Masculinity • Masculinity at work • High: competitiveatmosphere • Low: collaborative

33. Learning resources • DUTCH • Service Design Tools • Hofstede • Cultural Survival Kit

34. Cultural Survival Kit

35. Excellent Students – in Italy

36. Excellent Students – in the Netherlands

37. At each stage of design project: analyze context of current activity, describe all relevant issues related to stakeholders; consider design space: question to be answered, all possible options, and all relevant criteria; be creative in considering ideas as well as combinations of ideas from all stakeholders concerned. Work with client and stakeholders

38. Choice of techniques and tools General pointing to all resources listed in the digital learning environment Challenging to critique the suggestions (they did!) Requesting arguments for any choice and for rejection of what was suggested

39. Learning and teaching activities Students gradually take over presentations Students find / build alternative, newer, better understandable variants All teacher and student presentations permanently available and referred to.

40. For describe the offer we decided to use the tool ROUGH PROTOTYPING that allows us to visualize quickly and through the use of materials available (brochure, flyer, newspaper clippings, etc..) the development of our idea of project. In the following image it’s possible to see the realization, trough the tool, of our idea. We create an approximate map (we did not attempt to observe real distance) that identifies the collaboration of services in the space.

41. In this step we have collaborated with Marketing responsible that has told to us how they would the website and their needs and the demands of the clients.

42. After this interaction in which we’ve shown to him our first simple draft of the website, we’ve brought the opportune changes following his suggestions.

43. Assessment • A combination of: • individual presentations, discussions • group presentations • group documents after lab work • final group design document • final group presentation

44. Learning service • Classroom based sessions • Digital learning environment • Video lectures • Student presentations

45. Pointers http://mcm.cs.ou.nl/staging/ www.youtube.com\user\ServiceDesignOCW http://www.youtube.com/user/designinglivmemory/ http://www.youtube.com/user/studentspresentation

46. Findings • Development • Needs a close collaboration between teacher and instructional designer • Infrastructure • Videos can stress infrastructure of the learning environment • Public services also offer possibilities for streaming to mobile devices • Putting the videos in a public space creates more exposure

47. Findings • Split lectures in short atomic units (item for videos, YouTube clipsand Power Points) • Continuously adjust sequence of units to developing learner needs • Accept student contributions and unexpected ideas • Show students good examples of each other’s work and ask them why these work as learning resource

48. Lectures to go and can be viewed and understood on smart phones

49. Results • Student feedback • General positive response on video lectures in the survey • Sharing experience with the teacher • Adoption of delivering video lectures for their own purpose

50. Students’ comments: We watched the videos on a Nokia smartphone with a wide, large and brilliant screen and with a great audio output: we find interesting this way of providing lectures, informations and examples, and we think that this way brings learning and studying ahead, giving students the possibility to study and being informed virtually everywhere, only depending on the availability and the quality of the internet connection The presentations could be watched very well on the smartphone, the video quality was good and clear even if we were using a phone, and the voice and the audio were plain and listenable and also powerful This way of providing teachings is well accepted and useful, we appreciated it.