Project title: Accelerate: Accessible Immersive Learning for Art and Design
Reference: 2020-1-UK01-KA226-HE-094684
Project acronym: ACCELERATE
KA226 Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education: Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness
Priority: Higher Education and Society
Project duration: 1.06.2021 – 31.05.2023
EU funding instrument: Strategic Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness in the field of Higher Education (KA226)
Erasmus+ (CBHE) grant amount: 298,189.00 EUR
Target groups:
- Art and design undergraduates: those at the partners will be involved in development and evaluation of IO1, 4, 5; those elsewhere in Europe will benefit from improved teaching practice (IO2) and opportunity to work with new tools and resources (IO4, 5). Particular attention will be paid to students with physical, sensory, and cognitive functional diversity as well as those from underrepresented groups.
- Art and design lecturers: those at the partners will be involved in the development and evaluation of IO1-5; those elsewhere in Europe will benefit from methodological resources (IO2), educational training (IO3), and digital tools and materials (IO4, 5);
- Learning technologists, technical demonstrators, and professional development teams looking to support practice-based learning
- Lecturers across Europe and beyond will benefit from educational training (IO3)
- XR developers will benefit from the innovations of the Immersive Ecosystem (IO4)
Grant holder: Bath Spa University, United Kingdom
Coordinator and General Manager:
Prof. Ian Gadd, Head of Development for European Projects
Partnership:
- University of the Arts London, 272 High Holborn, London WC1V 7EY, United Kingdom
- Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design, Technology, Kill Avenue Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, Ireland
- SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ul. Chodakowska 19/31 Warszawa, Poland
- Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Kotsyubynskyi Str 2, Chernivtsi, Ukraine
- Sumy State University, Rimskogo-Korsakova Street 2, Ukraine
Project goals:
- To equip universities to face the challenges presented by the recent sudden shift to online and distance learning by building capacity for the implementation of online, blended, and distance learning
- To support teachers to develop digital pedagogical competencies, enabling them to deliver high quality inclusive digital education
- To develop and use high quality digital content such as innovative online resources and tools
- To promote networking of institutions by sharing resources and expertise with partners across Europe
Specific project objectives:
- To evaluate the impact of the shift to online and blended learning for European art and design students (IO1)
- To develop inclusive methodologies for the use of immersive technologies in the teaching of art and design in higher education (IO2)
- To train new lecturers in the principles and practice of accessible immersive teaching (IO3)
- To produce an accessible immersive prototype platform for art and design teaching (IO4)
- To develop accessible immersive teaching materials and guides for art and design lecturers (IO4)
- To advance an alternative framework for supporting digital innovation in HE that is inclusive, responsive, scalable, and sustainable (IO4)
- To develop XR case studies specific to art and design teaching (IO5)
Activities:
ACCELERATE will draw on the spirit of practice-led creative innovation that art and design lecturers have been invoking since March. It will focus on the potential transformative role of immersive technologies (that is, augmented, virtual, and mixed realities, also known as extended reality (XR)) in the teaching of art and design while recognising that many learners face significant challenges in engaging effectively with XR technologies: disabilities; complex personal circumstances; low quality devices; poor and unreliable internet access. It proposes to create a new prototype platform (Intellectual Output 4) for accessible immersive teaching in art and design that aims to democratise XR technology rather than limit to those with the best equipment and the fastest connections. The collaborative development of this immersive ecosystem—open-source, scalable, sustainable—as a gateway for art and design lecturers and students with little or no previous experience of XR technologies will be informed by a considered evaluation of the impact of COVID-19 on art and design teaching at the partner universities (Intellectual Output 1), the co-drafting of a methodological guide (Intellectual Output 2) and the co-designing of a standalone online training course aimed at lecturers (Intellectual Output 3); it will be populated by teaching materials including co-created case studies (Intellectual Output 5) that will draw on the shared expertise and perspectives of the project partners.
Expected results:
- Formal review of previous 15 months of pandemic-teaching; agreement of ethics, inclusivity and diversity statements; creation of project website and immersive collaborative space; identification of 'Accessible Learning Student Ambassadors' (ALSA); inclusive and accessible pedagogies training; purchase of VR headsets
- Pedagogical and digital development and testing by project staff and ALSA; development of immersive ecosystem; immersive technologies and immersive pedagogies training; initial development of the case studies
- 'Real world' testing of IO2–5 in their current state of development by lecturers and students at the relevant partners to coincide with the start of 2022/3 academic year; further feedback and development; ongoing development and testing of the case studies; 'training for trainers' focused on developing accessible immersive art and design pedagogies
- Publication of the methodological guide (IO2); public launch of the online training course (IO3), and the immersive ecosystem (IO4) which will include the case studies (IO5); peer evaluation of the project outcomes and multiplier events in UK, Ireland, Poland and Ukraine (May 2023)
- Creation and launching of specialized website for further dissemination and exploitation of ACCELERATE project results.
Partners from Ukraine:
Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Department of Decorative, Applied and Fine Art
Phone: +38(0372) 58 48 10 – Rector, +38 (230) 2-26-81 – Department of Decorative, Applied and Fine Art
Responsible person: Myroslava ZHAVORONKOVA, Head of Department of Decorative, Applied and Fine Art
Sumy State University
Phone/fax: +38(0542) 68 77 55, +38(0542) 64 04 99
Responsible person: Kostyantyn KYRYCHENKO, Head of the International Affairs Office of Sumy State University
Contacts:
Phone/fax: +38 (0542) 33 10 81
Phone: +380542 331081
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
Phone/fax: +38 (0542) 33 10 81
Phone: +380542 331081
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
Partners from the EU and UK:
Bath Spa University
Responsible person: Prof. Ian GADD, Head of Development for European Projects
University of the Arts London
Responsible person: Chris Follows, Emerging Technologies Manager
Institute of Art, Design, Technology, Dublin, Ireland
Phone/fax: +353 1 239 4000
Responsible person: David QUIN, Lecturer, Co-Chair DL832 Animation, Department of Film and Media
Phone: +48 22 517 96 00
E-mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
Responsible person: Filip ZAGORSKI, Head of Communication Design Program
Project website: https://www.immersiveartdesign.net/
Project YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCutD59fiEs6iglcicAQIZNw
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.