Poster 20

Lindsay Rattray
Victoria University
@classwired

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Tuesday 5 December 3pm – 3.45pm
Refectory

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Abstract

The increased focus on student engagement across the higher education sector requires new approaches. Our student engagement app, VU Scout was made by partnering with students in a lean approach to

• Ideation
• Design
• Creation and development
• Broader organisational integration

This is an example of such a new approach. Of course, student-led student engagement is not new: student clubs, societies, and magazines have existed for years. However, empowering student-designers with the time, space, and resources to design new, relevant, and technological ways to engage each other is novel, and proving to be efficacious. One of our presenters is the student lead and producer of the app.

One important feature of this success is that VU Scout is real: it has real users and it requires real organisational support in order to continue. More importantly, however, the app has succeeded because of its compelling and locally-relevant combination of features:

• Augmented Reality, enabling students to digitally decorate the campus, and take selfies amongst that work
• Location-based experiences, allowing students to check in and play different games or get location-specific information about services
• Gamified community, encouraging students to have face-to-face conversations to engage the social features of the app
• Incentivised engagement, based around a points and prizes system where activity in the app generates points, increasing chances to win prizes given in-kind by local businesses

Outcomes have been strong and all targets have been exceeded. We now plan to expand the student-team and enable more cross-disciplinary work on this real, live student engagement app.

About the authors

Lindsay Rattray

Lindsay Rattray is the Blended Learning Coordinator for the College of Business at Victoria University. Building on a career and studies in fields including EdTech Design, English Language Teaching, Computer Science, and History, his work is about maximising the effectiveness of teachers and students through the use of technologies.