Assignment 3 – Emotion Design Probe

The slides for this assignments are available here.

For this assignment, we were tasked to improve the learning experience in the Lecture Theaters. Due to time constraints, only LTs in FASS were considered in this assignment.

Primary research was carried out with a group of NUS students to find out which LT they liked or didn’t like. The most popular being the larger LTs i.e. LT11, LT9, LT10, LTs that weren’t so popular happened to be the smaller ones i.e. LT12.

There are certain assumptions made for this assignment. Firstly, students are assumed to be willing and able to learn and teachers are assumed to be willing and able to teach. This assumption is made in lieu of the fact that students and teachers both contribute to the entire learning experience and both experience each other. Think along the line of how late students disrupts the entire lesson or how the teacher have to make extra effort in keeping chattering students in check..

With the “human” aspect out of the picture, we look to the physical aspects of the LT environment…

Background

To our knowledge, LT12 is the venue where two film modules take place. They are GEK2020, Introduction to Film Art and SSA2218, Singapore film, a Study of Identity. A typical film study class usually lasts approximately 4 hours, 2 hours for the lecture and another 2 hours allocated for the screening of a film which will be discussed in the following week.

Ethnography

Paul and I decided to sit in for a lecture after seeking kind permission from GEK2020’s Dr Gilbert Yeoh. We set up a video camera at the front of the LT to record down interesting behaviors amongst our peers. Most of the observations made were from 15 mins into the start of the recording. This is to ensure that the students and lecturer were more “at ease” with the presence of the camera.

Analysis

The video recording of ethnographic data was analyzed before a list of suggestion was made.

Check out the video here.

Suggestions

1. More power points needed. As the campus move increasingly towards electronic teaching, the number of power points to students is alarmingly paltry. Most power points are located at the upper top left and right corners of the LT, with a complete absence in the middle of the LT.
2. Cramped seatings. Due to the long nature of film studies modules, LT12 seemed not to be an ideal venue. We understand that the locations of lecture venues are allocated according to the size of the cohort. However, for film studies modules where students have to crane their neck at the screen for an extended period of time, we propose that a larger LT be assigned so that the first few rows may be empty and that the students may take a more comfortable seat further away from the screen.
3. Lastly, we noticed how late comers disrupts the class by inching their way to isolated pockets of seats. Perhaps seating plan with lighted LEDs can be installed outside the LTs, indicating the position of empty seats. This will greatly help the students in looking for seats and minimize the amount of disturbance to their peers.

Limitations

While we made considerations to make observations 15 mins into the class, the presence of two “strangers” Paul and myself, squatting at the front of the LT with a video camera would undoubtedly skew the observations in that the students and Dr Yeoh would have behaved less naturally.

It would be ideal if we can sit in more than once. This will help the students get used to our presence and be more “natural”.