For the first time, the 3AMK-intensive course Digital Wellbeing Sprint was held online. In the Digital Wellbeing Sprint, students solve problems of real health care and wellness companies. This year, the course got excellent feedback from the students.
This year, cooperation companies were Etsimo, Emooter, StepOut, Coach4Pro, Caleidocons and Hublet. Emooter challenged two teams to find better ways for the company to serve customers who work remotely. According to Dani Pärnänen, co-founder of Emooter Ltd., it was interesting to see students work virtually. Pärnänen believes that this type of work will be common in the future, so the experience was valuable.
“Both teams came up with some great ideas and concepts. The discussions we had with the students were valuable and gave us new perspectives. We will continue working on the ideas and incorporate at least some of them into our app”, Pärnänen comments.
Despite some technical challenges, organizers were happy with the result.
”In the beginning, we took it as a challenge to carry out the Digital Wellbeing Sprint virtually. Now I can say it was the right decision. We got an amazing group of tutors and a project manager to plan the course and to help students along the Sprint”, says Merja Lahdenperä, a Senior Lecturer from Metropolia.
Good feedback from the students
According to feedback that was collected after the course, students were happy with the virtual implementation. Arttu Sundell from Metropolia participated in the course for the first time. In his opinion, the course was successful.
“I got interested in the Digital wellbeing Sprint, because it offered me a chance to get to work with challenges set by real companies. The sprint really challenged my analytic- and innovation skills. Also, it’s a good way to rehearse English and professional presentation skills. In addition, I got to meet brilliant people – I wish I could have met them in person”, he says.
Linlin Xu, a student from Haaga-Helia agrees.
“Now, when I look back at this week, I want to say that it was worth the effort. Fortunately, I met great team members. Everyone was very responsible and proactive. During this week, I learned how to implement Sprint and learned about the future trends in the healthcare field. My purpose in participating in this event was achieved. Digital Wellbeing Sprint is well worth recommending to friends.”
According to Lahdenperä, inspirational speakers brought important perspectives to the topic. This year, inspirational speakers in the Sprint included for example an actor and interaction designer Simo Routarinne and Tuukka Vartiainen from IBM.
According to the organizers, virtual tools are worth taking advantage of in the future.
“We proved that a 3-minute pitch works also virtually. We had an excellent team and excellent students this year as well!”, Lahdenperä says.
More information:
Project manager Heini Heinonen heini.heinonen@laurea.fi
Read more on the Digital Wellbeing Sprint page