Lifting the roof on Social Sciences – A new collaborative AR project (#ARcity)

Manchester horizon photo

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Author: tecmark.co.uk

I’d like to tell you about a new and exciting AR project that the SCARLET team at Mimas have just embarked on named ‘AR in the City’. The initial concept for the project was sparked by our existing AR developments and a meeting of minds at this year’s HEA Social Science conference.

The overall idea is to create one outstanding example of AR to be used within social science education. The aim is to enhance teaching and learning of methods teaching within Sociology and Criminology and embed quantitative methods into the AR and teaching experience. So, building on the successful methodologies of the SCARLET projects, we aim to run an exciting pilot project.

An AR Project Manager’s perspective

If you’ve ever wanted to start an AR project then here is a very simplistic overview of what I would suggest:

The right/mixed team – include academics, people to organise the project and ideally people with AR experience. This will make your project efficient. Here at Mimas we have learnt so much about AR, and whilst we try and share what we learn on this blog, there is nothing like having that experience in a team to avoid mistakes, save time and understand the potential of the technology within teaching and learning.

Get some funding or buy-out some staff time (you’ll need to rely on enthusiasm too but AR projects lend themselves well to this!) – however small you can develop an AR experience for  minimal cost, the key is the right people on the team and an idea led by the academics not the technology.

Get everyone (or everyone you can) together – to formulate that idea you’ll need everyone’s heads together and lots of post-its.

Make sure everyone knows what their role is and understands the scope and vision of the project – most of our AR projects have short time scales and everyone is very busy doing their day job,  so make sure everyone is clear on their tasks

Timescales – set yourself realistic timescales, and ensure that each team member can commit to the proposed timeline.

We’ve used these key steps on all of our AR projects so far and they have all gone pretty well. Remember, if you need help with an AR project, from a day’s consultancy to full project management and AR development please do contact us. We’re based at the University of Manchester and are experts in developing effective AR experiences for learning and teaching.

Who’s involved? 

As well as colleagues from Mimas, we’ve pulled together partners from the Higher Education Academy (HEA), British Society of Criminology Learning and Teaching Network (BSCLTN), British Sociological Association (BSA), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Durham and Loughborough University. These include:

– Laura Skilton, Matt Ramirez and Louise Egan from Mimas

– Helen Jones from the HEA and BSCLTN

– Dr Martyn Chamberlain from Loughborough University and the  BSCLTN

– John MacInnes, ESRC

– Judith Mudd and David Mellor from the BSA

– James Nicholson, SMART Centre, Durham University

What happens next?

We’ve got an idea for our AR experience that meets a teaching need within Sociology and Criminology. Next, we need to test the idea and start to develop a storyboard. Shortly we’ll write a blog post that encapsulates our AR in the City vision, or the AR experience from the perspectives of the academics and partners. We also need to decide which city to base our pilot on! More news to follow shortly.

We will also be sharing our development via Twitter, using the tag #ARcity.

Thinking about developing your own AR project?

Please do contact us: teamscarlet.wordpress.com/about.

3 thoughts on “Lifting the roof on Social Sciences – A new collaborative AR project (#ARcity)

  1. Pingback: Exemplary achievement for Team SCARLET | SCARLET (Special Collections using Augmented Reality to Enhance Learning and Teaching)

  2. Pingback: AR in the City – it’s almost built! | AR at Mimas

  3. Pingback: AR in the City – it’s almost built! | archaeoINaction

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