Since 2017, EdMedia cooperates closely with the Cyprus Interaction Lab
of the Cyprus University of Technology and its current projects.
Consultancy Project: User Experience Study of New Online Service for an e-banking System
The EdMedia MRG (a natural extension of the Cyprus Interaction Lab) conducted a user-experience (UX) evaluation study of a new online service that will be integrated into an existing e-banking system. The study recruited users to test a high fidelity prototype (i.e. a prototype that closely resembles the final service/product) in an early stage of the design cycle.
A team of 4 UX researchers at CYENS planned and executed this study with the test participants in a period of just over a week (February of 2022).
Through the employment of formative and summative methods and the gathering of both behavioural and attitudinal data, this type of UX studies can help provide focus on problematic features early on in the design cycle. It is recommended that an iterative evaluation-and-(re)design approach is established in key phases of the project to ensure that design and development are incrementally optimised in terms of User Experience.
Objectives:
1. Understand the needs, expectations, and limitations of people, as the prospective users of the new online service
2. Detect the challenging interface elements and/or user flows that may impact or challenge the user experience.
3. Identify user choice of alternative interface scenarios (designs and flows) through preference-testing processes
Qualitative Study of SELFIE Impact (QUASI)
Objectives:
1. Understand the digital readiness of 15 schools in three different countries in Europe
(Spain, Netherlands, and Cyprus).
2. Explore how SELFIE is used and perceived by its users in 15 different schools.
3. Identify and describe the impact SELFIE is having in 15 different schools in Europe.
4. Situate the impact of SELFIE in the more complex nexus of interrelated concepts like: digital readiness of schools, school management models, the changing landscape of technologies, theory of change in organizations, integration of innovation in education as well as the datafication of schools.
5. Provide a set of recommendations including at least aspects like the following:
the improvement of the tool; support material; school actions (i.e., what the school needs to do)
and best practices; stakeholder actions; social innovation actions (e.g., creation of networks, synergies etc.).
Consultancy project: Eye-tracking Usability Study of the New e-banking System
The EdMedia MRG conducted an eye-tracking usability study for a new e-banking system aiming to understand how the new system meets the needs of its users, to uncover possible usability issues and to suggest design recommendations that can serve as solutions towards improving the usability of the system. Specifically, the consultancy project included the following three;
Objectives:
1. Understand the needs and use-context of end users. It is important to understand the needs, expectations, as well as possible limitations of the users as well as the context of its use.
2. Define negative usability outcome. To detect those interface elements that hinder the system’s usability and require attention and improvement by the design and development team.
3. Provide design directions to address any negative usability outcomes. To provide practical design recommendations which aim to rectify the key usability challenges that have been extracted by the user studies.
This Knowledge Alliance project (NUMBER –621584-EPP-1-2020-1-EL-EPPKA2KA) builds on the idea that education is an unpredictable industry. If one is launching a startup in the Educational Technology (EdTech) niche, s/he needs to be prepared for the specific challenges that will face while attempting to enter into this market. At the same time the EdTech industry has exploded on a massive extent; the competition is huge and to stand out one must be unique in multiple ways. The ENTER project is at the forefront of this challenge, by improving the quality of entrepreneurship education around EdTech, bringing together academic and industrial partners with entrepreneurial experience and with expertise in educational technologies and learning pedagogies, aiming to empower undergraduate & postgraduate students, faculty members, researchers, educators as well as university alumni to become EdTech entrepreneurs.
Objectives:
1. To improve the quality of entrepreneurship education around EdTech, by bring together academic and industrial partners with entrepreneurial experience and with expertise in ed tech and learning pedagogies
2. To empower undergraduate & postgraduate students, faculty members, researchers, educators as well as university alumni to become EdTech entrepreneurs
3. To upgrade the quality of innovative & impactful EdTech products the number of EdTech start-ups in Europe that can grow exponentially
Stay tuned https://www.facebook.com/ENTEREdTech
Website: https://www.enteredtech.eu/
EDUBOTS [ERASMUS+ KA2 Knowledge Alliances; 1/11/2019-31/10/2021] is coordinated by EdTech Foundry in Norway and CYENS is a major member of the consortium which also includes distinguished organisations such as the Anna & Hubert Labs, the University of Leeds, the University of Zagreb, and the University of Granada. The project aims to document best practices for the use of chatbots in higher education. The project will map the current state of the art and will pilot pedagogical chatbots for education at the partner universities. The project aims to motivate the implementation of pedagogical chatbots for improving the quality of education in Europe.
Objectives:
1. We focus on engagement between students and educators facilitated by chatbots.
2. We focus on increasing the frequency and accuracy of feedback between educators and students.
3. Project pilots are designed with the overall goal of decreasing dropout rates by using chatbots.
4. We form a learning community of educators to participate in the project activities and make use of the research, free learning resources, and free tools.
Stay tuned https://www.facebook.com/edubots.eu
Website: https://www.edubots.eu/
Othello Tower
The “Othello Tower” project is funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to the CYENS Centre of Excellence and the Cyprus Institute aiming at the development of an educational game that addresses aspects of the history of the walled city of Famagusta. CYENS’s EdMedia group leads the Game design task.