E-Learning as Sensory Immersion in exploration, engagement, and discovery

If you are a teacher thrown into e-learning during the pandemic, there is a huge learning curve, multiple programs, objectives, and mental health conditions that challenge today’s learning environment. For that reason, NEXT.cc’s reframing of e-learning is a friendly, gentle, and intuitive invitation to explore topics through creative exercises. It share the beauty and ease of resource-based E-learning with teachers and students alike. Exploration opens curiosity and leads to hands-on discovery- motivating more profound learning experiences than just completing digital modules or achieving standardized online exams. NEXT.cc honors curiosity and creativity and teachers’ efforts in developing lesson plans. Yet we know (just as much as you) that learning happens inside and outside the classroom.

NEXT.cc started with the intention of multi-model blended learning in the e-learning platform. As a result, there are as many learning styles as students using laptops, phones, analog journals (use our Creativity Connections themed resources), in-class instructions, project-based learning, and community connections. Creating varied learning content in NEXT.cc, we consider that “out of 50 e-learning styles, the 11 blended learning results analysis proved most fruitful for student retention across various ages,” according to The U.S. Department of Education’s Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning Study.

We also know that the Covid-19 Pandemic has struggled with a negative impact on e-learning. However, we entice exploration with ease, design research, student and teacher testing, and expansive creativity in learning journeys that our team has put together for your classroom. Whether as a supplement to your curriculum or added research that can be affirmed as part of integrative inquiry-based learning for students, we believe that architecture and design should be accessible to all students - through e-learning, workshops, analog research and documentation, and 3D visualization.

E-learning is not just in front of a screen. It is learning blended with experiencing, exploring, and investigating, engaging in action, research, and discovery leaning immersion. For example, in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Eco Design class, undergraduates and graduates led by Professor (and NEXT.cc co-founder) Linda Keane, FAIA experience immersion with the entire body when it comes to design. What occurs when we do not have sight? How can we look more closely? How do we design spaces when we have limited mobility? What can we hear when we listen? E-learning is only a part of the whole in the way we approach nexus learning.

E-learning experienced with NEXT.cc is articulated beautifully by author Juhani Pallasmaa in his book The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses,

“I confront the city with my body; my legs measure the length of the arcade and the width of the square; my gaze unconsciously projects my body onto the facade of the cathedral, where it roams over the mouldings and contours, sensing the size of recesses and projections; my bodyweight meets the mass of the cathedral door, and my hand grasps the door pull as I enter the dark void behind. I experience myself in the city, and the city exists through my embodied experience. The city and my body supplement and define each other. I dwell in the city, and the city dwells in me.”

Immersive learning that cultivates curiosity and inspires lifelong learning is the intention of NEXT.cc. The world needs active problem-solvers and future leaders of tomorrow that look both at the micro and macro views. They are eco literate; they use what is around them, including all five senses, in learning. So step out to encounter your world and take a friend with creative connections at your side.