Newsletters
May 2023
Past Events
Accelerate Multiplier Event
Multiple Locations, 18 May 2023
- To disseminate the activities and outputs of the project
- To strengthen ties with artists, designers, professionals, organisations, and companies interested in the key themes of art and design, pedagogy, accessibility, and immersive technologies.
Events will be held simultaneously in the UK, Ireland, Poland, and Ukraine and will include an opportunity to use VR to meet with others across the project and learn more about our international collaborations.
These events are aimed at creative, cultural, professional, and commercial communities including: lecturers and students with interests in art and design, accessibility and inclusivity, educational practice, or immersive technologies; representatives from galleries, museums, theatres, and other cultural organisations; representatives from charities and organisations that support disadvantaged and underrepresented groups; and professional artists, designers, and technology developers.
For more information please contact Accelerate@bathspa.ac.uk
Training for Trainers: Developing accessible immersive learning methods.
School of Form, SWPS, Poland, April 2023
Co-ordinated by faculty from SWPS’s School of Form with particular interests and experiences in developing innovative digital learning experiences, the training event will focus on creating effective strategies for pedagogical development based on what has been learned at the previous two training activities.
Learning, Teaching, Training Event: Immersive Pedagogies
IADT Dublin, 14-17 November 2022
The training event focused on how to develop effective immersive learning, and leveraged IADT’s distinctive pedagogical strengths and experience. It was led by faculty drawn from IADT who have particular specialisms in teaching using immersive technologies. It considered the following questions:
- What is ‘immersive teaching’, and how does it differ from other forms of teaching (whether in person or ‘traditional’ online)
- How might immersive teaching be incorporated into a blended or wholly online course?
- How can immersive teaching foster inclusivity?
- What are the accessibility challenges?
Learning, Teaching and Training event: Immersive Technologies
University of the Arts London, 6 – 8 June 2022
This three-day training activity introduced project participants to immersive technologies, and drew on UAL’s extensive strengths in developing AR/VR/XR tools, platforms, and environments.
The event was led by UAL’s Creative Computing Institute and Emerging Technologies team. The event considered the following questions:
- What is immersive technology?
- What are the standard development and user tools?
- How accessible and inclusive can immersive technology be?
This training activity was be first of three linked training activities. Future events will be focused on
- Immersive Pedagogies
- Training for Trainers: Developing accessible immersive learning methods
Training Event – Accessible Pedagogies
Bath Spa University, 22-24 February 2022
This three-day training activity focused on the issues of accessibility in teaching higher education, and leveraged BSU’s distinctive research and pedagogical strengths. It was led by 3-4 faculty drawn from BSU’s Schools of Education and Creative Industries who had particular specialisms in accessibility, inclusivity, disability studies, and student engagement.
The session considered the following questions:
* what are the different kinds of accessibility?
* who are the disadvantaged and underrepresented student groups in UK higher education?
* how has the pandemic exacerbated existing challenges for accessibility and created new challenges?
* how can pedagogical practice foster inclusivity?
Representatives included a mix of art and design lecturers and creative technologists.
The training activity directly informed the development of the immersive ecosystem by providing an essential framework for designing, monitoring, and evaluation of its ‘accessibility’.
Project Blog Posts
Accelerate: exploring the use of immersive technology in arts education
Can immersive technologies become a viable solution to teach creative disciplines remotely? And how can we make sure the use of this technology is accessible for all students and staff equally?
Read how our team at UAL are planning to meet their project objectives.
School of Form ACCELERATE(S) Art and Design Learning
By engaging with the layered complexities of XR accessibility and immersive learning, ACCELERATE has the capacity to be genuinely pioneering in its pedagogical and technological outcomes and to find new ways of engaging with art and design students from disadvantaged and underrepresented groups.