Published papers

Learning mobility enhances employability and expands career networks. Despite easy access to global knowledge and skills through online and short-term learning mobility programs, learning fragmentation and incoherence have become issues. This research proposes a new scheme called Inxignia, which aims to enable learners to achieve coherent learning continuity within or outside of School on the Internet Asia (SOI Asia), an inter-university network in Southeast Asia and Japan, and increase a sense of community. Inxignia integrates the three modes, namely (1) Engagement: Engaging with Communities of Practices within or connected to SOI Asia; (2) Imagination: reflecting on experiences and small-scale learning achievements in SOI Asia; and (3) Alignment: Coordinating with SOI Asia stakeholders to achieve the desired learning and career path. A micro-credentialing e-portfolio platform supports enhancing each mode such as a feature to support reflection and plan learning from a bird’s eye view and open badges to visualize past journeys and future potential. The implementation results indicated that Inxignia supported Imagination and Alignment modes for SOI Asia Learners and the importance of including young faculty to make the scheme autonomous and sustainable.

This article presents a nonformal learning programme implemented in a Japanese high school, focusing on exploring Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) topics through a multimedia content creation project. The programme employs a dynamic module design, characterized by student-centred learning, a comprehensive feedback loop, and timely adjustments to tailor to students’ learning paces. This nonformal approach allows students to experience DEI concepts closely, diverging from traditional formal education methods. Student reflections indicate increased awareness and appreciation of diversity, enhanced empathy, cross-cultural understanding, and development of critical soft skills through DEI experiences and multimedia content creation. The findings suggest that high school students can effectively grasp abstract concepts like DEI experientially. The programme’s dynamic design offers a model for creating large-scale, learner-focused curricula. Additionally, the collaboration between a graduate school and a local high school demonstrates a potential role for higher education institutions in supporting community education initiatives.

This paper discusses the design and practice of ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) through an online video co-creation workshop for Japanese high school students. Our research group has designed a workshop program that co-creates short videos to promote the UN SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). The workshop took place from July to December 2020 and involved 112 Japanese high school students. The workshop consists of four phases: Research, Planning, Making, and Reviewing. Through questionnaires and qualitative observational surveys, we analyzed whether participating students could learn the seven abilities and attitudes emphasized in ESD in each phase. As many learning environments shift to online due to COVID-19, this paper explores ESD workshops that can be realized even in online environments, contributing to ESD research.

This position paper reports on the design of the Asia Pacific Internet Engineering (APIE) Program: an ICT education program for undergraduate students in the Asia-Pacific region that utilize multiple resources and learning content from existing ICT-related Communities of Practice (CoP). APIE program consists of four components: self-paced online courses, synchronous online sessions, an onsite camp, and an internship. The program structure has been strategically designed to position APIE not only as an online courseware for knowledge acquirement but anticipating its potential to become a new CoP that fulfills the gaps between the current ICT education and the expectation from academia and industry. This study first introduces the program concept and describes the design of components and the implementation plans. It also presents preliminary results from the first pilot runs of the program.

This paper introduces the initial phase of the design process of a simulator about information sharing in social media for educational settings. This online tool mimics real-world social media services and provides a playful learning experience. Players evaluate online information, make decisions to share or not the information, and as a result, gain or lose followers. Students can access other players’ statistics and analyze references such as expert’s opinions to support their decision-making. Through this experience, students are expected to exercise and reflect on their online social media behavior and become smart consumers and responsible creators of online information. The preliminary findings reveal a glance of social media sharing behavior among university students in Japan and clues for measuring the learning effects and the engagement for this sort of practice. Results from this research are expected to contribute to digital media literacy education and serious game design domains.

Aspiration is substantial in children’s learning and career development. Unfortunately, the isolation of information in rural areas left the children with a narrow vision of future careers. Utilizing the combination of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and analog learning methods, the project aims to broaden children’s horizons and build a sense of connectedness between them and the world of work. Exploration components and delivery methods were designed and validated with schoolchildren aged 9 to 13 who live in Panglungan Village, Indonesia. Observation, survey, output analysis, and interview are combined to examine the impact of the learning components and the program’s sustainability. The result shows that the learning component designed also help promote aspiration in children in rural area. The research also emphasizes the use of new media in non-formal learning like career exploration and the role of a learning center in rural areas.

This paper reports on the design of Inxignia: Community-Based Micro-Credential e-Portfolio Platform Service in collaboration with SOI Asia (School on Internet Asia). It aims to connect fragmented learning opportunities in the Landscape of Practice (LoP). Inxignia enables learners to navigate the three modes of the LoP framework: Engagement, Imagination, and Alignment. This research answers the research question: What are the focal elements for each mode in SOI Asia? Inxignia has three components corresponding to the modes: engage with communities of practice, reflect learning experiences on a continuous and overarching basis, and codesign learning pathways with multiple stakeholders. The results indicated that Inxignia supported each mode.

As the number of Internet users continues to increase, there is an urgent need to train Internet engineers to support this infrastructure. Our research team is designing and managing an educational program to foster Internet engineers for undergraduate students in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. As part of the program, we are conducting on-site hands-on exercises to create a computer network with remote locations using Research and Education Networks (RENs). Since these onsite hands-on exercises will be conducted in various places in the APAC region, delays caused by physical distance are unavoidable. Therefore, our team has designed a low response time hands-on exercise environment to ensure comfortable student activities. Furthermore, to verify the effectiveness of this design, we conducted a simulation verification using a virtual environment. We confirmed that the design provides a low response time, even considering the unavoidable latency over distances in the APAC region.

This paper discusses the use of 360-degree cameras in two distinct fieldwork learning activities in higher education. This study aims to identify specific contributions of 360-degree video and its relation to the fieldwork learning process, from the perspective of students and when compared to other tools and methods for data collection. A mixed-methods approach was utilized to understand students’ learning process, obtaining data by survey, analysis of results from in-class activities, and observational analysis. In total, 83 students participated in these activities. The two activities showcase how 360-degree video can be utilized by students in relation to fieldwork activities, to collect data and to back their claims with evidence. By investigating common themes on self-reports written by the students, the unique contributions of 360-degree camera on field observation and subsequent approaches to data analysis are highlighted when compared to other tools and methods. The understanding of these unique contributions points bring us closer to identifying specific learning components for the design of educational programs that can benefit from this technology.

Since 2015, an ICT-supported workshop program based on the constructionism approach has been implemented at Fujimikaoga High School for Girls (FHS) in Japan. Keio University Graduate School of Media Design students from diverse cultural backgrounds facilitates the nonformal learning experience. The program employs a design thinking process (DTP) and ICT tools to enhance active collaborative learning and intercultural interactions. Over 800 students have participated, demonstrating gains in critical thinking, investigation, feedback articulation, and iteration of their own views. This paper details the program’s concept, process, qualitative findings, key elements of success, and challenges during implementation.

This paper introduces a case study that redesigns graduate school classrooms into massive open online course (MOOC)-like content with remote face-to-face sessions. Due to the influence of COVID-19, the higher-education environment is rapidly shifting to an online environment in many institutions. Therefore, instructors need to transform lessons they have been doing in physical classrooms to an online format. However, just conducting the same talks online is not enough to provide students with satisfactory learning. Instructors need to redesign class content and structure to optimize them for the online environment. In this case study, the research team and an instructor redesigned an existing graduate school class into MOOC-like content. We will discuss the specific methods and benefits of this initiative.

This paper discusses the design of online video co-creation workshop for ESD (education for sustainable development). Our research team designed and practiced a workshop program for 112 Japanese high school students from July to November 2020. This workshop program aims for high school students to acquire abilities, attitudes, and key competencies emphasized in ESD through co-creating short videos promoting SDGs activity. Focusing on the four teams that were particularly effective from the quantitative data of the workshop, we will analyze the work process of those teams and summarize the design recommendations for the video co-creation workshop. This research explores the possibility of online video co-creation as an ESD method and contributes to sustainable ESD research even in the era of COVID-19.

Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved. This research proposes a cross-cultural program in elementary school aiming at fostering global citizenship education in a classroom through media creation in a program called "KomaKids" In this program, the students' global competence is expected to be developed in four main steps: (1) through learning about foreign culture; (2) by reflecting on their own culture through the production of stop-motion animation; (3) by sharing their impressions through "pen-pals" letter; and, (4) through connecting in real-time with peers from foreign cultures. Since March 2015, 23 workshops were periodically conducted at Japanese, Thai, Brazilian and USA elementary schools. However, the focus of this paper will be on the 2017 academic year program with Japanese, Thai, and Brazilian schools. The result according to the observation shows that the implementation of "KomaKids" program produced noticeable changes in students' global competence of their age.

© 2019 IEEE. This paper discusses the design of a video blog to enhance the social presence of educators in MOOCs. Social presence is considered to be one of the critical factors in education, and MOOCs are no exception. However, in the most existing MOOCs, educators' social presence is limited due to its predefined, linear course structure, as well as text-based semi-synchronous conversation. Hence, this research proposes a daily video blog, which focuses on presenting: 1) Educators Biography; educators' background and experience in the subject area, 2) Educators Feedback; educators' response to learners' questions raised in the course, and 3) Educators Discussion; educators' debate on the latest trends surrounding the course topicto further augment educators' social presences. This paper studies the computer science course of FutureLearn which was conducted in October 2018 and April 2019. A series of short videos were uploaded per day on YouTube and shared with learners alongside the four weeks course. Through observing educators and learners' behavior, as well as conducting interviews with learners, the findings suggest a positive impact of a video blog on enhancing educators' social presence and further opens up new possibilities and new ways in designing MOOCs.

© 2019 IEEE. This research discusses how cultural heritage resources can be designed and used as Generous Interfaces alongside MOOCs, to encourage open-ended explorations in digital heritage collections. As an online platform, MOOCs is opening the doors to one's cultural collections by making their digital materials available for educational use, and further enriches the cultural heritage experience. This paper presents the practical experience in creating a generous interface in coexistence with MOOCs-The courses developed by Keio University, focusing on the history, culture, and design of rare Japanese books-And allows learners to explore contextual details, as well as connections across digital cultural heritage.

© 2019 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM. As technology is rapidly evolving, we are faced with a lot more and faster changes in our everyday life, including in our career. A lot of freshly graduated students experience a shock during the transition from the academic environment to the professional world. Collaborating with IN360, a project that is working on providing career education for children aged between 9 to 12 years old, a digital storytelling workshop was designed to explore the impact of job digital storytelling activity for the development of university student's career management competencies. The workshop was conducted in Vietnam with 19 undergraduate student participants from Hutech University. The participants were assigned into three groups to create three different job storytelling videos in 360°format for children aged between 9 to 12 years old. The career management competencies in the participants are expected to be developed through (1) in-depth interview with someone who works in the field; (2) purposeful 360° video-making activity as a contribution to society; (3) collaborative environment with peers and companies. From the questionnaire, discussion, and observation of the activities, the job digital storytelling program conducted with IN360 did not only established storytelling skills and technology literacy in the university students but also develop some career management competencies in personal management, learning and work exploration, as well as career building areas.