Designing Trust in Immersive Learning: Case Study

Lead Presenter: Sofia Sakura
Co-presenter: Evangineer Resident

Venue: Lecture B – The Oasis

How can technology amplify care rather than reproduce alienation? How might care be normalised while preserving privacy, autonomy, and sovereign participation at both individual and collective levels? This presentation examines these questions through Coffee & Coworking (C&C), an intentionally designed virtual community that integrates social and digital technologies, including AI, to support indirect learning and the cultivation of relational capacities. Grounded in the simple premise of “coffee, solo working, togetherness”, C&C establishes low-pressure conditions for collective re-engagement with community. Through deliberate framing, gentle onboarding, and a commitment to inter-being, inclusion, and kindness, participants develop practices of self- and mutual hosting. Participation is graduated and supported by a bespoke socio-technical ecology integrating in-world tools and communication practices, demonstrating how collaboration and communication emerge through care-centred design.

Objectives:

• Participants will be able to map participation levels to appropriate socio-technical design choices.
• Participants will be able to recognise a socio-technical ecology that fosters collaboration and care.

Insights Connection:
There is a gap between the relational needs of learning communities and technology design cultures shaped by risk aversion and limited engagement with lived community experience. Drawing on an ongoing, self-directed action research project in a real-world virtual community, the presentation offers practical insights into how immersive environments can be designed to support trust, interdependence, and collaborative learning. Participants will gain transferable insights for educational practice.

Accessibility: I will use a SpeakEasy HUD Tool.