Virtual productization in Xamk

Maija Rimpiläinen

Choosing the targeted equipment for a snow-shoe hike.

Xamk and 3DBear have successfully co-created a VR learning environment for practising the productization process. A great deal of studies in Xamk is conducted online, thus the project was based on the will and need to increase the quality of the online education and to make it equally attractive to the students and teachers. Anu Rantanen, the co-creator and Senior Lecturer at Xamk, has long been reflecting upon the matter. Here is what she says about the development of online studies in Hospitality Management: “At first we took the education process online with little consideration on whether the material and exercises were at all suitable for the online environments. However, during the last few years we have had an increasing need to discover attractive, versatile and pedagogically correct solutions.”

A snow-shoe hike for Japanese tourists and a field trip for the school kids were chosen as a theme for the VR productization process. The process itself contains every phase of productization from idea generation to value proposition and work elements. In the VR environment a student has a chance to design a genuine experience for the Japanese tourists or the school kids, paying attention to the details.

VR space lets the students practise a storytelling style appropriate to each target group.

Valuable creative thinking of the teachers refined into detailed blueprints provides the foundation for the VR environment of the productization process. “We began by designing the project together. Exchanging opinions helped us see how our virtual environment could be perceived by different students in the future”, Anu Rantanen reflects. Rasmus Borg, the senior representative from 3DBear, states that the teachers have indeed done an amazing job which is definitely seen in the final product. The students, likewise, have considered the content attractive and a good addition to the teaching.

Xamk does plan to continue the project development, and there are new VR environments currently under construction. This project has paved a solid way and provided a firm foundation for developing and constructing learning environments in the future. The VR environment for the productization process is a great example of the products of RestoLab, the learning and development environment of the Hospitality Management studies at Xamk. RestoLab has all the necessary equipment for creating the AR and VR learning spaces, and it is also available for the local enterprises. RestoLab intends to create a connection between students and working life. The Xamk VR environment for the productization process will increase interest in RestoLab both within and outside of Finland. RestoLab is located at the Mikkeli premises of Xamk.

Anu Rantanen, Senior Lecturer at Xamk

Translation into English by Olga Harrison, 3DBear