This document discusses establishing a long-distance collaborative interaction design education environment between Australian and Japanese universities. It outlines challenges including long distance, language differences, time gaps, and cultural differences. Existing courses were rearranged with a cultural-sensitive approach. Achieved solutions included achieving online interactivity through initial online knowledge exchange and community building. Students provided positive feedback, saying the interactive 3D component helped visualize and understand designs, and was useful to clarify usage scenarios.

1. A case study of establishing long-distance collaborative interaction design education environmentComparative research of Australian and Japanese Interaction Design Education AUC– Create World 2010 - Brisbane Dr. Stephen J. WANG Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Art & Design, Monash University

2. Participative institutions Department of Multimedia Design, Faculty of Design, SUT, Melbourne, Australia Department of Design Tokyo Zokei University Tokyo, Japan

3. This project attempts to suggest a possible solution for future transnational interaction design education This paper presents a stage in progress within a long-term research process; where an initial trial was implemented,

4. Why The long distance e-learning innovation provides an opportunity to integrate emerging technology with developing design education practice. Johnson and Foa suggested (1989), ‘The decision to use new media or applications should be driven by need and not by the attention given to the new tool’.

5. Outline of this presentation Background challenges Rearrangement of existing courses Achieved solutions Discussion

6. Background

7. This paper focuses on an interaction design curriculum within an international collaborative education project as a case-study to demonstrate an approach to constructing hybrid e-learning environment which contains both physical classrooms and online virtual interactive-3D environments.

8. Background Why are we doing this? There is constantly increasing pressure on providing students with skills not only for design, but also design educators to prepare young designers for an international industrial environment for intercultural communication and distributed collaboration (Sheldon et al., 1995, Scollon and Scollon, 2001, Schadewitz, 2009)

9. Goals How to educate our design students to be competitive international designers How to help students achieve correct concepts of interaction design based on a cross-cultural perspective How to build an environment encourages intercultural collaborations

10. Background Participative subjects: ‘Interaction Design’ at Tokyo Zokei University ‘Design in Context’ at SUT

11. Background The previous published paper describes how a comparative research study was undertaken across the two countries, and the two universities involved, identifying the impact on three significant areas: 1. The course structure and content 2. The method of course delivery 3. The method to enhancing students’ learning experiences Refer to: Wang, S.J. & Tamada, T., Cumulus 38º South 2009, “Transitions in Design Education: A Comparative Study of Australian & Japanese Interaction Design Education”, Melbourne

12. Student’s work samples “Interaction Design is concerned with the behavior of products and services, with how products and services work.” (Saffer, D., 2007)

14. long distance Collaborative design education by distance has always been a challenge for both teacher and student.

15. long distance Due to the characteristics of interaction design education, the creation and submission of interactive visual materials from students presents potential difficulties for this project.

16. language The second difficulty of this study is language differences Tokyo Zokei Uni Japanese SUT English

17. Time differences The third difficulty of this study is the time gap which includes two aspects: Time zone gap Teaching terms Japanese Universities: Spring semester: early April - late July Fall semester: early October - late March

18. Cultural differences Another feature and challenge of this international project are the cultural differences within the two student groups, which we have endeavoured to utilise constructively in the education process: critical thinking in design

20. The features of this course

22. Student’s work samples – 2009 Price Availability: depends on the hour Assistance Security

23. Student’s work samples – 2009 “Park in The city” Function

24. McMahon and Pospisil (2005) discovered in their studies, as there is a ‘…focus on social interaction and ‘connectedness’ the characteristics of this hybrid e-learning environment are interactivity-centred, and focus on the expression of invisible contexts.

25. The Framework of Culture-Context Focused Interaction Design Refer to: Wang SJ, ConnectED2010, “A Case Study of Cultural-Sensitive Interaction Design Teaching Method”, Sydney, Australia Wang, S. J. 2009, International Conference on Interaction Design, “A Case Study of Culture-Sensitive Interaction Design Curricular Development”, Beijing, China (held by Tsinghua University, Carnegie Mellon University, HKPoly Tech University). http://www.iadconference.org/Eng/

26. Re-define outcomes and objectives Design ability in interaction design The understanding of the importance of various contexts Creativity based on contextual modulating

27. Achieved solutions Achieving Online Interactivity Initial online knowledge exchange Community Building

28. Initial online knowledge exchange

29. Examples of a Collaborative Learning Environments An early example of a merge between collaborative tools and 3D environments for learning is: Virtual European Schools (VES) project (Bouras et al., 1999). Intelligent Distributed Virtual Training Environment project (Bouras, Triantafillou, & Tsiatsos, 2001). Active Worlds C-VISions for science education

30. Community Building

31. Achieving Online Interactivity

32. Discussion

33. Discussion The key factors of successful building an e-learning environment for design education include: The function of data collecting, analysing, modifying, managing, transferring , and integrating The function of real-time communication and messaging The diversity of data acceptance for design students learning needs A flexible structure which is able to integrate various functional components An aesthetic and friendly interface to attract students’ attention and enhance motivation The function of portable device synchronization

34. What students say “I think the interactive 3D component is necessary as it makes it easier for people to visualize and understand my design concept. People tend to take a greater interest in the concept and technology they are introduced to if they are able to interact with it. The interactive 3D component captures people’s attention and gives them a virtual experience of how the new system would be. ” “It is useful to explain the detail of user activities. Through this way it helps to clarify the scenarios of how the system would work like.”

35. Thank you!