ABOUT THE PROJECT ZOO–X: Kristiansand ZOO is internationally recognized as a recreational park combining a traditional zoo with a philosophy of animal care, sustainable nature, advanced storytelling and a broad variety of family oriented adventures. Each year, about 1000 seasonal workers are hired for the summer season to work in a variety of functions. Many of them have no prior knowledge of the par, other than as visitors. Hence, this project is a collaboration between the Kristiansand ZOO and Future Learning Lab to explore means of learning and training the team of seasonal workers in a virtual reality mode. Consisting of three pilot study parts, the project starts out by defining the learning needs. Next, collaborating with the Zoo project staff, the project identifies a content and a platform for the learning and training objects. Finally, once the format and the general narrative is in place, the project proceeds to producing the learning resources.
The main R&D part of the project is the execution, which consists of presenting the learning resources to the seasonal workers, observing their use according to a pre-set field study, and finally writing up an assessment report on the first year of use. On this basis, the ZOO may decide whether to continue – and if yes, how.
The project is currently being planned and funds sought from, among other sources, the Regional Research Council of Agder. The project team in the planning stage consists of Donna Kidwell (production and exploration) and Oddgeir Tveiten (design, project reporting and field observation), with designated task members from the Future Learning Lab research team.
Run time: June 2018 through August 2019, provided funding is secured.