Högskolan i Skövde

The field Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) involves new forms of social interactions that are dependent on the many and different earlier expectations of humans. In this study, the impact of linguistic framing on students' expectations and user experiences when being introduced to social robots in an educational setting were investigated. An empirical case study involved the social robot Pepper and 10 students aged 16–19. The introduction to Pepper utilized two forms of linguistic framing: positive and negative terms. Pre- and post-interaction interviews were conducted to assess the students' expectations and experiences. Assessments to measure negative attitudes toward robots and user experiences were conducted using the NARS and Godspeed questionnaires. Furthermore, filmed observations of the students' interactions with Pepper were used to provide additional insights. Results of the study showed that students' expectations and experiences varied depending on the type of introduction and linguistic framing utilized. While none of the differences among the questionnaire responses were statistically significant, the trends were in line with the clear results from the interviews and observations.

Active mobility, such as biking, faces a common challenge in Swedish municipalities due to the lack of adequate lighting during the dark winter months. Insufficient lighting infrastructure hinders individuals from choosing bicycles, despite the presence of well-maintained bikepaths and a willingness to cycle. To address this issue, a project has been undertaken in the Swedish municipality of Skara for an alternative lighting solution using drones. A series of tests have been conducted based on drone prototypes developed for the selected bike paths. Participants were invited to cycle in darkness illuminated by drone lighting and share their mobility preferences and perception. This paper summarizes the users' perception of drone lighting as an alternative to fixed lighting on bike paths, with a special focus on the impact on travel habits and the perceived sense of security and comfort. Most participants were regular cyclists who cited bad weather, time, and darkness as significant factors that deterred them from using bicycles more frequently, reducing their sense of security. With drone lighting, the participants appreciated the illumination's moonlight-like quality and its ability to enhance their sense of security by illuminating the surroundings. On the technology side, they gave feedback on reducing the drone's sound and addressing lighting stability issues. In summary, the test results showcase the potential of drone lighting as a viable alternative to traditional fixed lighting infrastructure, offering improved traffic safety, sense of security, and comfort. The results show the feasibility and effectiveness of this innovative approach, supporting transformation towards active and sustainable mobility, particularly in regions facing lighting challenges.

The world is continuously changing, as highlighted by the theme of this year's DAL conference (Högre utbildning i en föränderlig värld). Academia has, partly through the adoption of a quantifiable mindset, developed into a domain particularly ill equipped for dealing with sustainability challenges emanating from such a changing world (Urai & Kelly, 2023). Here, sustainability refers not only to the climate crisis, financial or environmental challenges, but to social aspects of sustainability as well – challenges such as ensuring inclusion and equality are coequally important to address (United Nations General Assembly, 2015).

There is a proposed solution for how to achieve a more sustainable and just academia; by adopting a culture inspired by the economic doughnut model (Raworth, 2017) to academia (Urai & Kelly, 2023). The doughnut model is originally intended as a general economic model, where humanity is proposed to find safety and justice in the sweet-spot that rests on a social foundation safeguarding against critical human deprivation, without overshooting planetary boundaries (Raworth, 2017). Seven principles accompany the doughnut and have been translated to academia (Urai & Kelly, 2023) to highlight necessary changes in mindset towards achieving sustainability. With this contribution to DAL23 we want to discuss how students' sense of belonging is a complex yet crucial piece in this effort, mainly relating to the third principle (Urai & Kelly, 2023). The changing world has already led to changes in the student composition, and the change is likely to continue. Since 2021, Swedish universities are bound by law topromote broadened recruitment (Swedish: breddad rekrytering, SFS 1992:1434, ch. 1 §5). The third principle of the academic doughnut model (Urai & Kelly, 2023) suggests that we, as academics, need to move away from the idea of universities as ivory towers towards institutions thoroughly integrated in society. Apart from the problematic self-view of academics as academia being a place where learned men engagein the noble pursuit of objective and pure knowledge (Urai & Kelly, 2023, p. 6), the ivory tower stereotype also challenges certain students in different ways. For instance, the transformative nature of higher education might alienate a student's family and friends by making it more difficult for students to relate to people they knew since before their education, a phenomenon known as cultural suicide (Brookfield, 2015). There can thus be a social pressure working against students as they pursue higher education.

This pressure is, however, not only from outside of academia. Norms, ideals, and identities related to academic subjects can affect the sense of belonging of students in ways that create a de facto, if not de jure, bias against certain students. For instance, Stout & Wright (2016) have found correlations between gender identity, sexual orientation, sense of belonging, and thoughts of leaving the studies in computing-related fields, where heterosexual men had the highest sense of belonging and lowest amount of thoughts of leaving.

Approaching such diversity with an attitude of 'needing to provide additional support for them' might maintain the division of 'those that belong in academia' and 'those that do not', thus enforcing the ivory tower culture. An alternative attitude is to 'find a way for us all to integrate', that is, acknowledge that it is necessary with mutual negotiation of meaning. With that said, we want to acknowledge that this can be easier said than done, partly due to existing structures and culture(s) in academia that are difficult for individuals to challenge (Urai & Kelly, 2023), and partly due to inherent power structures in teacher-student relations (Ashwin et al., 2020, ch. 6).

To conduct education in a changing world, it is necessary to acknowledge that academiais part of that world, and therefor needs to change accordingly. Instead of viewing the universities' mission of education as a task of changing the students, education is an opportunity for the universities to change with the students. Such change is not only an opportunity to change the problematic aspects of academia, but also to take a more active role in society's journey towards sustainability.

References:

Ashwin, P., Boud, D., Calkins, S., Coate, K., Hallett, F., Light, G., Luckett, K., McArthur, J., MacLaren, I., & McLean, M. (2020). Reflective teaching in higher education. Bloomsbury Academic.

Brookfield, S. D. (2015). The skillful teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom. John Wiley & Sons.

SFS. Högskolelag, 1992:1434.

Raworth, K. (2017). Doughnut economics: seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist. Chelsea Green Publishing.

Stout, J. G., & Wright, H. M. (2016). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queerstudents sense of belonging in computing: An intersectional approach. Computing in Science & Engineering, 18(3), 24–30.

United Nations General Assembly (2015). Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda forsustainable development. United Nations General Assembly resolution A/RES/70/1.

Urai, A. E., & Kelly, C. (2023). Rethinking academia in a time of climate crisis. Elife, 12, e84991. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.84991

Swedish public universities are, by law, assigned three core duties; teaching, research, and science outreach (SFS 1992:1434, ch. 1 § 2). Legally, there is no priority among these, however, a de facto hierarchy is common in the attitude towards them (Karagiannis, 2009); in general, teaching is a necessary evil, research is prestigious, and science outreach a sporadic extra. In order to perform any of the core duties, not only is the right supportive infrastructure needed, so is performing secondary duties. Due to the implicit and supportive nature of these secondary duties, they tend to be less visible, appreciated, and rewarded. Large university functions such as administration, communication, library, and technical support, are explicitly dedicated to secondary duties, and less explicitly involved in core duties, thus they risk being taken for granted or seen as external servants.

Secondary duties performed by academics can generally be categorised into internal and external services, where internal services are sometimes called academic housekeeping (Kalm, 2019) to highlight the similarities to domestic housekeeping. Such services here summarised as tasks that helps taking care of the academic family (Guarino & Borden, 2017) are generally within the school and will not entail academic rewards. External services i.e. duties such as reviewing, serving as an expert, or partaking in boards can be hard work, but the work is more visible and can also have added benefits such as payment, access to networks, and being recognised when applying for promotion (Kalm, 2019). Interestingly, research tends to have more in common with the external services, whereas teaching is more similar to internal services. It could, however, be possible to get teaching more visible and rewarding (thus more similar to external services), for instance via open educational practices (OEP, Bali et al., 2020) such as open networked learning (ONL)[1].

The academic housekeeping work is also not evenly distributed among all teachers and researchers. There is, for instance, a noticeable bias of women receiving requests for, and accepting, duties of this kind (Babcock et al., 2017; Kalm, 2019). Since these duties are less rewarded and visible, the people performing these duties are at risk of being less likely to advance their careers, or partake in the more prestigious work that their housekeeping duties facilitate.

Part of the problem comes from, and is enforced by, an archaic view of academia characterised by the idealisation of the lone (research) genius, working in the isolated ivory tower (Kalm, 2019; Urai & Kelly, 2023). This leads to an us and them situation where housekeepers are locked out of the tower, and those within struggle to keep their place. Inspired by the economic doughnut model (Raworth, 2017), and slow academia (Berg & Seeber, 2016), a more holistic approach has been sketched out as a way to build a fairer and more sustainable academic culture (Urai & Kelly, 2023). Rather than considering academics as cogs in a machine chasing perpetual growth and aspiring to become a lone genius, a more apt metaphor is a garden where we all grow together (Urai & Kelly, 2023). Increasing collaboration and collegiality within teaching, research, and science outreach respectively, and also between them, will allow secondary duties to be more visible, possible to distribute, and credit, in a fairer way. Our proposition is not that everyone should do everything, but that a more complex view of people in academia than just teacher or researcher is needed. To tie education and research closer is, apart from the intrinsic values (Karagiannis, 2009; Urai & Kelly, 2023), also something explicitly requested from the faculty board (The Faculty Board, 2020).

References:

Babcock, L., Recalde, M. P., Vesterlund, L., & Weingart, L. (2017). Gender differences in accepting and receiving requests for tasks with low promotability. American Economic Review, 107(3), 714–747.

Bali, M., Cronin, C., & Jhangiani, R. S. (2020). Framing Open Educational Practices from a Social Justice Perspective. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2020(1). https://doi.org/http://doi.org/10.5334/jime.565Links to an external site.

Berg, M., & Seeber, B. K. (2016). The slow professor: Challenging the culture of speed in the academy. University of Toronto Press.

Guarino, C. M., & Borden, V. M. H. (2017). Faculty service loads and gender: Are women taking care of the academic family? Research in Higher Education, 58, 672–694.

Kalm, S. (2019). Om akademiskt hushållsarbete och dess fördelning. Sociologisk Forskning, 56(1), 5–26.

Karagiannis, S. N. (2009). The Conflicts between Science Research and Teaching in Higher Education: An Academic's Perspective. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 21(1), 75–83.

Raworth, K. (2017). Doughnut economics: seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist. Chelsea Green Publishing.

SFS. Högskolelag, 1992:1434.

The Faculty Board (2020). Forskningsanknytning av utbildning. Decision of the Faculty Board, Dnr HS 2020/238, University of Skövde.

Urai, A. E., & Kelly, C. (2023). Rethinking academia in a time of climate crisis. Elife, 12, e84991.

[1] http://www.opennetworkedlearning.se/

Enligt högskoleförordningens examensmål ska studenter efter avslutad utbildning inte bara uppvisa kunskap och förståelse för sitt områdes vetenskapliga grund utan även en rad färdigheter, förmågor, värderingsförmåga och förhållningssätt som inbegriper ett internationellt och interkulturellt perspektiv. Dessa perspektiv kan fås genom internationellt studentutbyte och mobilitet men också genom internationalisering på hemmaplan är tillgängligt för alla studenter. Internationaliseringen bryter språk- och kulturella barriärer, öppnar studenternas internationella perspektiv och bidrar därmed till att öka kvaliteten i utbildningarna och gör studenterna bättre förberedda för ett alltmer mångkulturellt samhälle och en global arbetsmarknad. Personas är fiktiva beskrivningar av typiska användare, förankrade i empiriska data med fokus på användarnas mål, behov, erfarenheter och beteenden. Inom området User Experience Design utgör personas ett viktigt stöd i den användarcentrerade designprocessen. Personas används ofta för att ge liv åt potentiella användare och därmed göra det lättare att ta användarens perspektiv, men har också använts för arbete med utveckling av studenters empatiska förmågor [1] [2]. I detta projekt användes personas för att beskriva studenters mål, behov, erfarenheter och beteenden, i relation till de internationella, interkulturella och globala färdigheter våra studenter behöver i sitt framtida yrkesliv. Syftet är att synliggöra de behov studenterna ska försöka möta och i sin tur söka avspegla detta i utbildningarna. I projektgruppen ingick programansvariga samt personer med erfarenhet av User Experience Design. Efter en kort presentation av projektet och dess resultat genomförs ett digitalt rundabordssamtal.

Syftet med rundabordssamtalet är dels att diskutera allmängiltigheten i de projektresultat som presenterats, dels om personas kan användas för andra ändamål som exempelvis vid utveckling av högre utbildning. Projektledaren fungerar som moderator för samtalet och inleder med en kort Mentimeter-övning där deltagarna får reflektera kring det genomförda projektet och dess relevans för internationalisering i utbildningen. Beroende på antalet deltagare så kan rundabordssamtalet sedan delas in i mindre digitala grupper ledda av övriga projektdeltagare och med en gemensam återsamling med gemensam sammanfattning och avslut. Förväntat utfall från rundabordssamtalet är att sprida arbetssättet med personas men också att vi ska få med oss viktiga synpunkter för det fortsatta arbetet.

[1] Haag, M., & Marsden, N. (2019). Exploring Personas as a Method to Foster Empathy in Student IT Design Teams. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 29(3), 565–582.

[2] van Rooij, S. W. (2012). Research-Based Personas: Teaching Empathy in Professional Education. Journal of Effective Teaching, 12(3), 77–86.

The education of students to become competent user experience designers is a delicate matter as students need to obtain a multitude of knowledge, skills, and judgmental abilities. In this paper, our effort to manage this multiplicity in a bachelor’s program in user experience design is shared along with our experiences and teaching practices influenced by theories of situated and embodied cognition together with reflective teaching. The program was followed up through interviews with eight alumni and a company representative that employs user experience designers. The results show that the program overall works well, although some of the identified issues need to be addressed in the future. The interpretation is that our program curricula and teaching practices are fruitful, which hopefully can contribute to thoughts and discussions for other teachers in the field of user experience design and human-computer interaction.

There are numerous examples of role-playing being adapted and included as a pedagogical technique in teaching, including in higher education. For example, teachers might simulate different scenarios, and role-play different stakeholders and users, in order to create more experiential types of learning environments. Role-playing can also provide an opportunity for students to actively explore, reflect upon and personalise the material that is studied. Similar techniques can be seen in User Experience Design (UXD), wherepractitioners create personas and scenarios to describe representative and typical usersand use-cases. In this report, we propose an alternative use to the more traditional way of using personas and scenarios in academiaas well as in industry: as character sheets and role-playing. Instead of being more analytical and descriptive tools in the design process, our role-playing approach invites exploration and personal interaction. Putting such character sheets into action allows the design team to interact with hypothetical, but typical users, thus providing a richer understanding of their context, and facilitating an empathetic understanding of the different stakeholders and their sometimes conflicting interests. This is particularly relevant in an educational context, where students are learning and training to improveas designers.