The Emerging Media Exploration project (EMEX) seeks to establish university-industry partnerships on the matter of content creation for emerging media technologies. Media technology R&D institutes and start-ups have a steady need for high quality content to evaluate and showcase their products, while universities are constantly looking for opportunities to educate their student on cutting-edge media technology. Universities both have the competence and time to prototype content for immature technologies, with no established production workflows and tools in place. EMEX will be implemented as a transnational minor curriculum on Emerging Media, embracing concepts of blended mobility to encourage students to engage in international partnerships on multiple levels - from online participation to long-term mobility. EMEX includes high-profile media technology research partners in the consortium and will actively seek to include more associated partners. The consortium will work on a dedicated collaboration framework that allows for blended transnational project-based learning. The learning activities will be implemented in three iterations over the project duration of three years. Each iteration will be kicked off with a transnational online course in spring/summer term introducing emerging media technologies, allowing students from the participating universities to familiarize with both the matter and each other. The course will comprise different lecture and concept development activities with the goal of prototyping initial content ideas for a given emerging media technology. Thus prepared, the students will enter the winter term elaborating the concept within local emerging media courses and producing content in dedicated transnational workshop at one of the consortium partner’s premises. Beyond the learning materials and outcomes of each course iteration, the consortium will document and reflect the course framework as such, sharing both the concept and the content openly for other universities to implement.
The Emerging Media Exploration project (EMEX) sought to establish university-industry partnerships for content creation for use in emerging media technologies. Media technology R&D institutes and start-ups have a steady need for high quality content to evaluate and showcase their products, while universities are constantly looking for opportunities to educate their students on cutting-edge media technology. Objectives: EMEX developed collaborative teaching approaches to explore the impact of new and emerging media technologies on the future of storytelling and society. EMEX conceived, implemented and evaluated five transnational courses on the themes of the Future of Television, VR & Virtual Production and Emerging Media Trends. Further internal courses and bilateral courses with external partners were developed. The project created four different course formats, focussing on the meaningful integration of industry partners. Student projects created a variety of concepts and prototypes and a sizable amount of learning material, with a focus on methods of collaborative online design methods for emerging media, in addition to teaching material. Participants: Approximately 160 students and 23 teachers from Media Production, Interactive Media, Film- and TV Production, Creative technology, Human-computer interaction and Emerging Media programmes participated in the projects activities, which comprised 5 online courses, an onsite workshop 2019 and a hybrid workshop in 2020. Consortium: Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Germany (Project Lead) University of Lincoln, UK University of Central Lancashire, UK Tampere University, Finland Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Finland Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany (Industry & Research Partner) EMEX included high-profile media technology associated research partners, such as the innovation department of the Finnish broadcaster YLE, the volumetric capture stage Volucap GmbH from Potsdam and the XR production company INVR GmbH from Berlin. Students: Approximately 140 students and 20 teachers participated in online courses and workshops. The multiplier events reached approx 250 people, and additional presentations and workshops reached approx. 24 teachers and 60 students. 22 companies in Finland, Germany and UK supported the courses and events by holding presentations, providing technology or participating as interview partners. Additional students, teachers and professionals attended workshops based on EMEX concepts and content, held in Germany, Finland and online. Activities undertaken: EMEX developed collaborative teaching approaches to explore the impact of new and emerging media technologies on the future of storytelling and society by conceiving, implementing and evaluating five transnational courses on the themes of the Future of Television, VR & Virtual Production and Emerging Media Trends. Further internal courses and bilateral courses with external partners were created, building on the concepts developed. EMEX was implemented as a transnational minor curriculum on Emerging Media, embracing concepts of blended mobility to encourage students to engage in international partnerships on multiple levels. Each iteration began with a transnational online course in spring/summer term introducing emerging media technologies and including lectures and concept development activities to prototype initial content ideas for emerging media technology. The winter term elaborated the concept within local emerging media courses and content production in a dedicated transnational workshop. Results and impact: The impact of EMEX among the participating organisations was significant. The project had a strong impact on university industry contact networks, developing a transnational course concept and a transnational curriculum on Emerging Media as a blended mobility concept. The online teaching and collaboration methodology built on the output of the Erasmus+ partnership “OnCreate”, which EMEX enhanced and updated to integrate opportunities provided by current collaboration platforms. EMEX knowledge has been applied in further internal and external online collaborative courses at the participating universities. Longer term benefits: Future expected benefits include strengthened international cooperation between higher education institutions and media technology research, with strengthened curricula and cooperation in course development. EMEX also reached out to the FAST45 Knowledge Alliance and ErasmusVR cooperation project for knowledge transfer and planning of future partnerships. A subset of the EMX curriculum will be offered in 2022 by the Tampere Universities and Film University as a 30 ECTS minor curriculum for Erasmus students.