How to execute a rapid development course on XR technologies

In the fall of 2024, students from diverse backgrounds came together to participate in a hands-on learning experience: the Hackathon for crafting digital solutions for nature tourism course. Hosted by Haaga-Helia UAS, Metropolia UAS and Humak UAS, the course provided an opportunity for participants to explore extended reality (XR) technologies, nature tourism, intensive collaboration, and develop innovative digital concepts for two tourism companies.

In this article, we describe the planning, execution and wrap up of the course to help others in using hackathon implementations in their own teaching.

Hackathon principles

Hackathon is a time-bounded innovation competition event, where teams are competing (Halvari et al. 2019). The word hackathon comes from the words ‘hack’ and ‘marathon’ (Rys 2023). The concept builds on a challenge that the teams are innovating new solutions to. Hackathon principles include that the participants come from various backgrounds and the at the end a jury pronounces the winning team with their output (Halvari et al. 2019).

To gain practical insight on how to organize a successful Hackathon event, we interviewed partner director Taavi Paananen from Junction, a company that has ten years of experience organising hackathons. From that conversation, we learned that

• the participants own the IPRs (Intellectual property rights) of their inventions
• NDAs (Non-disclosure agreements) are usually done with the companies who participate
• companies and hackathon participants are free to negotiate what happens to the invention after the Hackathon event

From online learning to an intensive hackathon week

The course was structured to contain two phases, an online pre-module phase and the intensive on-site hackathon event. During the independent online study phase, students were able to get acquainted with the topics by studying materials. The pre-module included three areas to investigate: adventure education, fast concept development, and extended reality (XR) technologies.

This individual learning phase allowed participants to familiarise themselves with concept development tools and basics of XR development before diving into the intensive hackathon week. After every module, the students had to write an essay, where they showed that they were able to use the learned information in practice.

The intensive creative work was done face-to-face in the Metropolia’s Helsinki XR Center facility. The hackathon week was structured to contain some pre-scheduled programme sections, but mainly the time was dedicated for the student groups to innovate and work with their company cases independently. Coaching was available for the student groups during the whole hackathon week.

The detailed program of the week

Day 1 – Kick off and Team Formation
The event began with an introduction to the hackathon theme and company challenges. Participants then formed multidisciplinary teams, bringing together designers, developers, business students, and technology enthusiasts. The crucial part was to hear out the company representatives and their services that could be enhanced with virtual solutions and then forming teams that have common interests in one of the topics.

Day 2 & 3 – Concept Development & Prototyping
Over the next two days, teams worked to refine their ideas, conduct research, and build initial prototypes. The Helsinki XR Center provided the perfect environment, offering technical support and access to cutting-edge XR tools.

Day 4 – Final Presentations
The final day was dedicated to presenting the newly developed concepts to company representatives and industry experts. Each team had the chance to pitch their solution, showcasing their prototypes, business models, and potential impact on the tourism industry. Judges evaluated the projects based on innovation, technical execution, feasibility, user experience, and impact. In the end, the teams received small prices from the companies whose challenges they were solving.

Conclusions on the execution

Overall, the Hackathon for crafting digital solutions for nature tourism course was a success. However, some things could be executed differently, and some features are good to think through before conducting a course like this.

Two major aspects make this kind of course a bit challenging. First, it needs good company challenges that provide a clear framework. Putting effort into finding challenges that are suitable for a hackathon is crucial. When choosing a hackathon challenge, it is good to keep in mind, that there is limited time to work on the proof of concept, and the challenge needs to be clearly presented.

Second, the participants need to be totally committed to the course, which means they need to put other things aside while they attend the intensive part. Sometimes it may be a lot to ask from students doing many other courses at the same time.

Regarding the hackathon schedule, we experienced that it is good to start each day with a common session, going through what is happening each day. This helps the students to focus on the challenge, because of the very limited time for development.

By the end of the course, participants walked away with various experiences. They got hands-on experience in rapid concept development, deeper understanding of XR technologies and practical experience with lean startup methodologies. They refined their ability to develop digital solutions in a multidisciplinary team setting and gained valuable industry connections and potential opportunities for future collaboration. Most importantly, the hackathon fostered an environment of open innovation, collaboration, and learning.

For many participants, this course format was a unique and memorable learning experience.

Not only did I meet amazing people, but I also got the opportunity to work on a real case that opened the door for me to develop a project for an actual company.

What made this experience memorable was working in an inspiring environment, having hands-on experience, and getting fully immersed in the project for its duration. The most important thing, in my opinion, is to focus on the progress, not the solution. Hackathons are supposed to challenge you… It would be nice to see more hackathon-like courses offered for students in the future!

As instructors we were delighted to hear the feedback from the students. They seemed to enjoy the intensive week as they were able to focus fully on the tasks in hand. Working with people not familiar may cause some friction, and we had some minor misunderstandings in the communication between the students. The issues were solved by listening and discussing, and the students learned how to eventually find common ground.

The course successfully blended creativity, technology, and sustainability, showing how digital solutions can transform the way people experience nature. One team continued refining their concepts after the course, even discussing further development opportunities with the company that had provided the challenge. All in all, we can warmly recommend other lecturers to try this hackathon course structure. It is, after all, a successful example of how project work can be combined with education.

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