Project description:

The "KodiLL" research project, funded by the "Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre" with several million euros, is investigating the development of skills through digital teaching and learning scenarios at the University of Augsburg. The Media Reality Division was involved in sub-project 1, which focussed on video-based teaching/learning scenarios.

The starting point was the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and the associated observation that video-based learning content and educational videos promote the development of young people's skills. They can also be enriched with interactive elements such as 360-degree perspectives, split screens or eye tracking, which even increases their contribution to skills development.

For our division, this led to the goal of producing interactive educational videos for university teaching in which phenomena relevant to communication science are illustrated. These include the mediatisation of everyday life, disinformation and false reports on social media as well as the potential applications and risks of artificial intelligence.

The result was the creation and evaluation of four interactive learning videos in which these phenomena were presented and visualised using authentic examples. During the project, they were used in lectures, seminars and tutorials of the ‘Media and Communication’ degree programme at the University of Augsburg and received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the students. The videos can be accessed free of charge on our YouTube channel and used by teachers and students from all universities and faculties.

In addition, a framework was developed to facilitate the use of educational videos in the classroom and serve as a kind of guide for teachers (Stark et al., 2023). Moritz Schweiger's PhD thesis is also linked to the project, which also deals with the development of skills, but is linked less to teaching/learning scenarios than to the manifestations of popular culture.

The 1st educational video is a sequential 360-degree video that illustrates the increasing mediatisation and virtualisation of our everyday lives from several perspectives. The video can be shown in classroom situations on a screen or via VR cardboard boxes and is now available at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hSGdgUEIbE. The video was also used in a qualitative interview study with students. It showed how differently the positive and negative implications of the mediatisation of everyday life are perceived (Schweiger & Wimmer, 2024).

The 2nd educational video shows the characteristics of virtual and augmented reality as a two-part point-of-view video. It addresses reception phenomena such as the feeling of immersion or physical presence as well as the possibilities of exploring these technologies as a student at the University of Augsburg. The link to the video is now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXgxM9Uwyso&t=98s

Our 3rd learning video illustrates how fake news can be recognised on social media feeds. With the help of an eye tracker, the actor's focus was visualised as a red circle and it was shown how both individual posts and the context of use can direct our attention on social media and influence whether fake news is recognised or not. The video is now available at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXcQd6jEgv8&t=5s

Duration:

2021-2025

Recent publications:

• Schweiger, M. (2025, July 13–17, accepted). Cultural knowledge as practical knowledge – A transmedia analysis of popular culture and how it can be integrated into social lives and practices [Conference presentation]. IAMCR 2025, Singapore.
• Schweiger, M. & Wimmer, J. (2024, accepted). Perceiving media change as a form of media literacy. Using a 360-degree-video to analyze the mediatization of our social life. Mediatization Studies 7. 
• Stark, K., Wekerle, C., Bischoff, A., Schweiger, M., Peuschel, K., Proske, K., Weckerle, B., Vettermann, L. & Schindler, A.-K. (2023). A heuristic framework for video-based teaching and learning scenarios in higher education, Journal of Research on Technology in Education
• Elmezeny, A./Edenhofer, N./Wimmer, J. (2018): Immersive Storytelling in 360 Degree-Videos: An analysis of interplay between narrative and technical immersion. In: Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 11(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.4101/jvwr.v11i1.7298.
• Wimmer, J. (2020): The “ultimate empathy machine” revisited. Challenges of augmented and virtual realities from an ethical perspective. In: Tillmann, A. et al. (Hg.): Ethics and Games. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 129-142.
• Wimmer, J. (2018): Bildung Half-Real? Das Bildungspotential von Computerspielwelten aus theoretischer und empirischer Perspektive. In: Binder, U. (Hg.): Modernisierung und Pädagogik – ambivalente und paradoxe Interdependenzen. Verlag Julius Klinkhardt, 246-263.
• Wimmer, J. (2017): Moral Dilemmas in Digital Games. In: Clash of Realities (Hg.): Clash of Realities 2015/16. On the Art, Technology and Theory of Digital Games. Bielefeld: Transcript, 311-321.

Team: