The Fernstudent. A User-Centered Design Case Study on Improvements of Hybrid Teaching Through A Physical Avatar in the Classroom.
Daniel Ullrich, Andreas Martin Butz, Sarah Diefenbach · 2024
Hybrid formats have become a common approach in university teaching. Typically, there is a synchronous live session which students can join either in the physical classroom or digitally/remotely with interaction through textual chat. While this has many advantages in terms of inclusivity and sustainability, it also poses problems such as increased attention requirements for teachers and a lacking social integration of remote and on-site students. Based on a user-centered design approach, we developed the concept of the "Fernstudent". A physical avatar represents remote students collectively in the classroom, creating a communication channel based on the same modalities as for on-site communication. The present case study describes the iterative design process, from the first idea via explorative interviews and state of the art analysis, concept development, potential analysis, exploration of different design variants, a first functional prototype, a pilot field test, and finally lessons learnt and planned future steps of development.