Speaker
Description
Challenge-based learning and responsible futuring approaches create empathic and collaborative learning opportunities by engaging students with real-world problem-solving through interdisciplinary, participatory methods. Challenge-based learning promotes experiential, problem-driven learning by engaging participants in real-world challenges. At the same time, responsible futuring ensures that envisioned solutions and future developments integrate social and ethical dimensions, promoting inclusive and sustainable urban spaces. These approaches align with the living lab concept, emphasising co-creation, experimentation, and real-world testing in collaboration with stakeholders. In response to the need for novel approaches in teaching and learning, we explored artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) as emerging tools that can equip future planning practitioners with the skills to address contemporary challenges, such as inclusive urban climate adaptation. In this context, we explored the effectiveness and usability of AI and VR in a responsible futuring workshop, assessing their impact on inclusive co-design processes. Specifically, we examined how these technologies support creative ideation, facilitate diverse perspectives, and contribute to designing climate-sensitive, inclusive blue and green urban spaces in a neighbourhood adjacent to our university campus.
Three groups of five students adopted the roles of diverse stakeholders, including an older adult with limited mobility, a child with a migrant background, a homeless person seeking stability, a low-income parent, and an urban planner focused on inclusion. The workshop followed four responsible futuring stages: Connect and Relate, Understand and Frame, Imagine and Ideate, and Reflect and Reframe. Each group used different tools: 1- The VR Group navigated existing situations during “Understand and Frame,” 2- The AI Group used UrbanistAI to visualise scenarios in “Imagine & Ideate,” and 3- The non-digital Group worked with plastic construction bricks and printed images.
Feedback from students, six observers, and three facilitators highlighted AI’s usefulness in refining designs but emphasised the need for greater user control and realism. VR enhanced spatial understanding, but students were too focused on learning to use the technology, which came at the expense of neighbourhood exploration. Additionally, the interplay between abstraction and realism emerged as a key consideration in the creative process. Observations suggested that more abstract, hands-on methods, such as plastic construction bricks, facilitated open-ended exploration and early-stage ideation, encouraging broad, divergent thinking. In contrast, AI-driven simulations provided a more structured and detailed approach, proving more useful in the later stages where refining and concretising solutions became the primary goal. The responsible futuring framework effectively facilitated diverse perspectives through personas, though limited time restricted deeper empathy and reflection. Students identified shared priorities, such as safety, accessibility, and social connection, while exploring potential conflict between personas.
Recommendations include extending time for familiarisation with tools and personas, incorporating real-world stakeholders, and improving the realism of AI representations. The workshop demonstrated how AI and VR can support empathic and collaborative learning and link to the living lab concept by addressing real-world challenges.
| Keywords | Challenge-based learning; collaborative learning; responsible futuring; living labs; blue-green spaces |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
