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laurengausden · 4 years

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Honours Project Update 8

Week beginnings the 28th of October – 2nd of December

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve written an update post and in that time I have submitted my first honours project deadline, which was my scoping document (literature review and scoping document).

Writing the literature review was something that I found very challenging, but I also somewhat enjoyed as I enjoy writing. Writing was something that I wanted to do previously, and still do, so it was good to get a chance to write a few detailed reports this semester for honours project, as well as my user experience module.

My literature review was pretty much all I focused on since the last update, it being due on the 21st of November. After that, I focused on my UX assessment. My literature review focused on different theories and models that can be applied to interactive storytelling, with a focus on Aristotle being a major influence on those who then go onto develop his teachings to suit modern-day technology, like interactive storytelling. I focused on Boal and Laurel who both are known for their theories and opinions on Aristotle and his teachings.

Since writing the literature review and whilst doing research for it, and with meetings and discussions with John (my supervisor), it has become more apparent that creating my own model could be the idea behind my actual honours project, focusing on the user experience in detail, and the aesthetics. I am still interested in doing a case study, and hopefully formatting that into a documentary if possible.

I haven’t done any further planning into my honours project as my main focus is to complete my experiential design assessment as it’s 100% of my module. Once that is complete, I’ll be focusing on planning and doing further research into my idea or developing my idea. Hopefully, once I receive feedback on my scoping document, I can know whether or not I can go ahead with the documentary if possible.

The idea behind the case study would be about having participants testing interactive stories and seeing how these models can be applied, if they are still relevant or not, and how they can be developed to fit and work. This is just a rough idea at the moment as I’m not 100% sure if I can go ahead with it or not, but it would still be interesting to carry out a case study.

My project plan aspect of the scoping document was challenging as it was hard to figure out where to go in terms of the overall project when the literature review, whilst it was relevant, it still was a different part of the overall honours project so I’m worried about that aspect of the scoping document in terms of my overall grade, as the project plan is 10%.

Once I am finished with my deadlines, I will be posting more often about my honours project just to keep up to date more frequently.

#honours project diary #honours project #final project #final year of uni #student #studyblr #twitter: laurengausden_#edinburgh napier #edinburgh #univeristy #uni #uni life #uni update #honours project update #update #final year student #student life

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laurengausden · 5 years

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Week Seven Part Two – WB 21st of October

Honours Project Ideas

As mentioned in my previous post summing up the last three weeks, I have an interest in aesthetics and user experience and still want to continue with the focus on interactive storytelling as I am also interested in storytelling and obviously more so the interactive side of it.

My ideas include using aesthetics as a factor of interactive storytelling, so how would this influence the user's experience (or how would it influence UX) and how it plays into a part of immersion (or how it also is influential for immersion). This is definitely the basis of what I would like to do/discuss for my honours project. I originally wanted to focus on communication in terms of interactive storytelling and how this is influential as communication is a key part of storytelling, but I think since I will be discussing storytelling anyway, it will be covered so I should not be having that as a main focus as it is such a large subject and there would be so much to cover. Instead, I told myself to find something that is more specific.

Whilst meeting with John (my supervisor) weekly, he said to think of something you are interested in and it became more apparent to me over the weeks that it is user experience and then from my UX coursework one, aesthetics. It will be interesting to see how aesthetics plays part and what it means. When doing research, I have found information that links communication to aesthetics and how people communicate stories based on how they like something which leads to aesthetics so everything I want to cover should still be covered. This is probably badly worded, but in short, I am doing something I am interested in which will make it more interesting to do as a project overall.

I am still looking to do a documentary as it would be nice to improve on my skills with regards to editing and videos in general as well as allowing me to gain more experience with my camera. I did some research into what kind of documentary I would like to do, and I think it is called an observational documentary as I want to essentially give all sides of an argument. When doing research, I found that it includes giving audiences a first glance at all the important moments/points of a topic which seems exactly like I aim to do, or at least what I should be aiming to do in terms of the honours project. Within that, I would like to do a focus group or a case study kind of thing on specific interactive stories. Obviously, a big part of my research will involve finding good ones. I’d like to include them in the documentary.

In a true documentary style, it would start off with the storytelling in general and then go onto discuss interactive storytelling and how it is a new medium. That is when I would then focus on the specifics; aesthetics and user experience. Immersion is an important word and thing within storytelling so that will play a big part and be a word that is used a lot.

Next week, I will make sure to discuss with John my ideas and see if I can get the okay on it and see if I can move forward and focus on the scoping document. Once I get the okay, I will also be able to start planning my project and creating a plan as this is a part of the scoping document.

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laurengausden · 5 years

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Week’s Five, Six and Seven

WB 7th of October, 14th of October & 21st of October (it has been a while...)

These last three weeks have been busy... they have been focused on planning for the scoping document which is made up of the lit review and project plan. So far, I have been focusing on the research and planning of just the lit review and not so much the project plan and how I am going to go about that. I have struggled to come up with the main idea for my honours project however, the first deadline for my user experience (UX) module has helped me a lot, not just with narrowing my idea down but also in terms of the lit review. The layout and the formatting coursework one of UX is similar to what is expected of me for the lit review. After discussing with John mainly one-to-one over the last three weeks, aesthetics and user experience are something that I am strongly interested in, so I wanted to base my honours project around that. But I do still want to focus on interactive storytelling, so I am thinking about combining all of them together.

I have come up with a few questions (roughly…) that could possibly be my research question. I will be waiting until next week to discuss the questions with John to see if they are reasonable or how I can improve them as it won’t necessarily be my final research question this early on, or at least I wouldn’t say so. John (my supervisor) helped me with going over the feedback from my UX assessment which I got last week and has been a great help with that as he has noted it will help with my lit review, which I mentioned at the start. I have also taken the layout (structure/format, etc) of my first UX assessment and applied it to my honours project. It includes covering research question (or title), aim/s and objectives, users/target audience, and subject then covers how I will focus on the lit review itself, so where I would discuss the information I have found during research.

Over the three weeks, I have found a lot of papers that I think will be helpful or at least seemed helpful, but it has been a challenge getting through them as it isn’t the most fun part of doing research. I have been using Mendeley for storing my journals/papers as it is a useful source. It’s good because it has a mobile app so I can access my papers anywhere, I just wish it was more functional like the desktop app (like being able to highlight so I can do work on the go like on the bus, etc). I have also purchased a book as I couldn’t find it in the library. It is called “Pixar and the Aesthetic Imagination: Animation, Storytelling, and Digital Culture” by Eric Herhuth. I actually received it today, so I have been going through that. The first chapter has been incredibly detailed, but it is called Aesthetic Storytelling which is obviously very helpful and interesting in terms of my honours project, so I have spent this Friday (of week seven) trying to make sense of it. I have also been skimming through the book “Digital Storytelling: A Creators Guide to Interactive Entertainment” by Carolyn Handler Miller which is a book that has been recommended throughout my course, especially last year during my digital storytelling module, which influenced my subject choice of interactive storytelling.

In terms of note-taking and planning, I have been making detailed notes in my notebook, as well as having a section in the notebook for random notes and ideas, and random things I think that will be helpful in the future for my project or when it comes to actually writing the lit review. With planning, I have been doing mind maps as I find they are really helpful and them being visual also helps me sometimes.

I have posted another post about my idea’s as I thought I would post it in a separate post to explain my ideas further and to not make this post any longer as it is summing up three works worth of work because I forgot to post.

#honours project #honours project diary #student #studyblr #study tumblr #studyabroad #honours #project #project diary #final project #final year of uni

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laurengausden · 5 years

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Honours Project Diary Week Four

Week Four – WB 30th of Sep

This week I took somewhat of a break when it came to the honours project as my main focus was gathering research for my first module deadline, my first report for my user experience class. However, these did cross over as because I want to involve user experience in my honours project. During the lecture for user experience, my lecturer Laura did mention some storytelling aspects of user experience, so it helps with the research aspect of my project.

During the group meeting with John, it was nice to have him give us some different resources relating to our individual projects as well as some resources to look at in general. We just had a general update on how our projects are going but like I said, I was mainly focusing on my user experience assessment as it’s soon but was still doing a little bit of research and planning.

The class today was very overwhelming as it was about how to write our literature review or the scoping document as it's our first big deadline. It seems like it is going to be a lot of work which it seemed that none of us will be looking forward to.

This weekend will be about focusing on my user experience assessment.

#honours project diary

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laurengausden · 5 years

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Honours Project Diary Week Three

Week Three – WB 23rd of Sep

Last week, I spent a lot of time just trying to gather as much research as I can as well as spending some time on narrowing my idea down, like I mentioned in my previous entry. I started a document of all my research as well as a planning document so I can start having everything within one space rather than in so many different notebooks.

There isn’t much more to say besides I spent a lot of timing doing research and just thinking about what I want to do. The Facebook group he created is going to be a really good thing to have of the course of this year. With the group meeting with my supervisor John, we went around everyone in the group and we individually spoke about our projects, and it helped me kind of figure some more things about my project; I realised I definitely want to focus on the user experience aspect of storytelling and it’s definitely a documentary I want to do.

During our honours project class on Friday, we heard from one of the ladies who works within the library at Napier. She gave us some information on how to take advantage of the facilities that Napier offers within the library, how to research properly as well as different resources we can use throughout our honours project. The information she provided was actually really helpful and made me realise that we are offered a lot more than I realised and it helped me figure out where to look to further my research.

#honours project diary

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laurengausden · 5 years

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Honours Project Diary Week Two

Week Two – WB 16th of Sep

Week two, the first week of uni, meant we had the first meeting with our supervisor. My supervisor, John Morrison, gave us more in-depth information about the different deadlines that we have related to the honours project, with a focus on our literature review, also known as the scoping document, as it is the first deadline. We also had a deadline for the following Monday, which was our learning contract. Over the week, I spent some time doing research into my idea to help narrow it down a little, in order to submit something for the learning contract. John gave us some resources to look into as well as some extra notes on the honours project overall. I somewhat struggled with the learning contract as I am struggling to narrow down my idea for the project. Nevertheless, I wanted to submit something, so I spent the weekend before the deadline completing the contract.

The learning contract discussed the statement of the problem as well as the objectives of my project. My idea is based on storytelling, focusing on interactive storytelling. I would like to create a documentary where I discuss the user experience behind interactive stories, discussing the history behind storytelling as well as some testing some interactive stories to have it link with the UX of it. With regards to the information I would find; I’d like to try and write a short paper if so to discuss the findings I find about what participants think with regards to the UX of interactive storytelling.

Over the week, I will be trying to narrow down my idea some more as well as carrying out some more research.

#honours project diary

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laurengausden · 5 years

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Honours Project Weekly Diary One

Week One – WB 9th of Sep

Hello, I usually post some random blog posts about study abroad or some other things, and I’m now going to be using it as my honours project diary for my fourth year of university.

Here is my first post:

Week one, inductions week, I attended the honours project workshop. Since I was a study abroad student for the last semester of the third year, I was unable to attend the first workshop that was put on. So, this workshop meant that it was my first class in gaining an insight into what to expect for the honours project, what deadlines we have and what we would have in the honours project classes. I also started thinking about an idea for my honours project. I have been keeping a small notebook in which I keep notes in to help me make an idea for my honours project.

#honours project blog #honours project diary #honours project #fourth year student #fourth year university #student #uni student #final year student #final year of uni #student blog #blogging #educational blog #educational #education

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laurengausden · 5 years

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it's been a while since i posted... I started back at uni last week and it's been stressful 😅 fourth year is going to be something else... I haven't taken any photos since I got home so here are some more photos from the Glyptoteket in Copenhagen, Denmark 〰️ 1/3 〰️ https://www.instagram.com/p/B24l5iuhgSh/?igshid=138gd79pmrlmo

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laurengausden · 5 years

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Making A LinkedIn Account - For Students

Whilst I was on my study abroad semester, I learned how important it was to have a LinkedIn and I was reminded the other day when a guest lecturer came into my user experience module and I recently shared some tips on the social media page I help run so I thought I would share them on here!

Making a LinkedIn always seems like a super boring process, and you probably think that it isn’t that beneficial, but it actually is super beneficial and will help you lots in the future! LinkedIn is really good for networking and networking is super important and useful, especially for after uni, as it means that you will get to know people who can hopefully help you in the future.

I had a workshop during my study abroad semester where we learned how important LinkedIn is for networking, as well as when you are applying for jobs. You can find jobs on there, which is always good as it means you have more options. It means recruiters can find your account. It always a good thing to have on your CV and share on your application if the company gives you that chance. It’s definitely a more modern way of displaying your achievements, skills and work experiences, as well as a more professional way of displaying yourself. 👨🏻‍💼👩🏻‍💼

Networking is so so so important as I’ve learned over the last 6 months!

You definitely don’t have to pay for the full LinkedIn, as I use the free version, and I still get just as much use out of it as someone who pays for it (well that’s my opinion anyway) …

You can connect with your future lecturers, your past employers and even your friends! 👨🏻‍🎓👩🏻‍🎓

Here are some of the tips I learned:

1. Your profile picture is really important 📸 – I don’t recommend using a selfie, keep them for Instagram. I’d use something that looks more professional – not too professional but it also doesn’t look like something you would use in your passport. Remember that this is sort of a first impression that those who stumble across your profile are getting so you want to make it good!

2. Make the ‘headline’ that they have on your account for a first glance short but sweet 🍭 – Keep it to around 120 characters and make sure it describes what you are currently doing, in our case studying and how are you stand out as a person. Its essentially a slogan for you (sort of anyway).

3. Complete your profile✅ – don’t give up! I know setting up a profile isn’t the best fun but trust me, it’ll be worth it. Include whatever you think would be important and that would stand out to someone looking for employers.

4. Remember to update your profile every so often! – this is fairly obvious but still important.‼ If you’re stuck for ideas, look at academic people or business people, or even google, for help and inspiration but also remember to make it your own thing because you’re presenting yourself to employers. Don’t forget to make a good first impression!

Remember to connect with as many people as possible as networking as important and will help you out after uni, and that's always a bonus!🎉This website has good help if you’re interested in making a profile - https://hingemarketing.com/blog/story/networking-on-linkedin

If you already have an account, feel free to link with me – my account is Lauren Gausden - https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurengausden/

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laurengausden · 5 years

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Reblogging this post from my old second year of uni reflective journal. I wish I continued posting some work on here, but there are previous examples of work from me and precious coursemates on here. My skills have obviously improved but I just wanted to share it!

This is my documentary for Digital Video Development. It involved me interviewing some of the people I have gotten to know at my time so far at Edinburgh Napier who are from different countries. I asked them what it was like to study abroad here in Edinburgh. I was curious to find out the different opinions that people who aren’t from Scotland had on the country and what it was like for them to study here.

To reflect upon on my final project, I know that for next time, if I use the same back drop, I would like to do more with the white background. I am aware that the sound is off in some of the clips so I need to pay close attention to that and ensure that I have paired it up so that it is less obvious. I also am now aware after receiving feed back that next time, I should ensure the shadow of the objects are not noticeable and the lighting is, if not, almost the same. However, this does not mean the lighting I used was bad. I thought that the lighting was good but that it could be the same in every clip. This was unfortunately down to the people I interview only being able to be interviewed at different times throughout the week.

I was a bit worried with the time as 2 minutes 20 seconds isn’t a large amount but I am feeling more confident after hearing the feedback on my documentary and I feel that I am more capable of trying different things out in my next project.

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laurengausden · 5 years

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It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

Hi guys! I’m so sorry it’s been a while, but life has been so busy… I completed my final project at KEA in Copenhagen and then it was right to my exam. After my exam, I just spent my time chilling and completing my Copenhagen bucket list, and then came the thing I dreaded most; moving back home. I thought I would give you guys a little update!

Living at home has been… interesting to say the least. I’ve been trying to adjust to living back at home with my parents and getting into a schedule but it’s hard and I miss having my own routine, and my own privacy of course. I’m struggling to find a job which is making life more difficult because well, I’m a student who needs money, as well as that, it feels weird not having a summer job. But today, my friend and I finally got a flat! So, I’ll be back to my own routine and having my own privacy in no time.

Anyway, I can’t put into words how much I loved Copenhagen and how fun it was. It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, and I know it’ll be on the top of my list for years to come. I know I always say this, but I will be forever thankful that I got this experience. I recently met a woman who did her masters in Boston in America, and it’s got me thinking about what I want to do for my masters. I’d love to go abroad again, but it’s expensive which sucks, but hey, a girl can dream! So, we will see what happens in the future. Before any of that happens, I have to decide on what I will be doing my honours project/bachelor on once I return to university in September, which is way too soon for my liking. I’m expected to have an idea already… talk about stress. I had an idea that I was so happy with but once I went to submit it, I found that too many people had a similar idea, so it’s back to the drawing board but I’m sure I’ll figure it out and be back on track.

I’ve been taking part in a social media project within university that’s called Establish, it’s run by students for students. It’s been really exciting to take part in, and I’ve loved being creative and making stuff as well as posting stuff that I want to post and create. My team seem to be happy with what I’m posting and creating too which makes me happy. I’m going to be sharing my blog on there in hopes of helping students who are thinking about doing study abroad because I know that I’d have loved to have a platform like this available to me when I was going through the process. So, hello if that’s where you found my blog! I hope that Establish is helping you out and stay tuned for all our upcoming ideas and events!

I hope my updating you on my life hasn’t been too boring. I’m definitely going to start posting more on here now and make it a part of my routine. I’m going to be posting about my third and final project in the near future, most likely in the next few days, so stay tuned for that too!

Oh, and happy summer! I hope you’re all enjoying your summer holidays, even if you are working.

As always, if you enjoyed this, please check out my other blog posts and feel free to like and reblog this post.

Also, if you would like to follow me on my social media’s, they are:

Twitter: @laurenstudy or @unl0st_

Instagram: @laurengausden or @loz.fotos

Or you can find them on the home page of my blog.

I’ll be posting lots of upcoming photos from my exchange semester, as well as there being lots already on my second Instagram.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them and I’d be more than happy to reply.

Lauren

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laurengausden · 5 years

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Please ignore - these are being used for a project at uni.

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laurengausden · 5 years

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Logo for a uni project - please ignore.

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laurengausden · 5 years

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An Augmented Reality Experience

Tuesday the 2nd of April marked the day that I finished my second project here at KEA in Copenhagen. It also marked the final day that I was with my entire class; exchange students and people who were here for an internship. So, 10 weeks had already gone by, which seems crazy to me. It’s been a while, I know, I’m sorry but it’s just been very hectic, but I wanted to write a bit about what my second project was, and what did we produce.

The second project was all about augmented reality (AR) and involved us working with the Worker’s Museum here in Copenhagen, also known as Arbejdermuseet. My group and I were given the task of creating an AR experience about the Great Hall that is within the museum. The whole museum is about the workers’ movement in Denmark, and it was originally a place that people involved in the movement met, and it is still used for events to this day. My group and I were to tell the history of the great hall, and we focused on the key things that are featured within the hall; the ceiling which is made of glass, the wood carvings and the painting/mural. I’ll attach the videos like I did for my previous project if you’re interested in seeing them. It’ll include our promotional video as well as a linear video of the experience.

I was the project manager for this project, but as our group was small, it wasn’t something that was taken seriously. Instead, I worked alongside a girl called Renee on being a designer. What things did I focus on? I made the videos that are featured within our AR experience that are informative videos. I filmed and edited our promotional video. I also made a leaflet that would essentially be given out to those who come to visit the museum whilst they are buying their ticket at the ticket desk. Obviously, there were more things that I did, but those were the main things that took time. There was also a lot of research and planning done, as that is the main process of these projects. I might do a post on how I’m taught here, or how a project works here in Denmark at KEA Project Lab, if that’s what people are interested in.

Testing is always an annoying part of creating a prototype. We had wanted to use wood carvings that had outlines of specific things in the hall. That would essentially be the trigger for our AR. Unfortunately, those did not work so we just had to use paper copies of the outlines which, looks wise, did not look that great, so we were quite disappointed in that.

After we had completed our project, we had to present to the class, as well as a few other people, including two people from the museum. I was nervous, as always, but it went well, and they could see the potential in our idea which is always a great thing. A few days after the final product, we were given the opportunity to present our experience at the museum, where members of staff came to try it out and which essentially allowed us to do further testing.

With every project, especially when it’s a prototype, there are always things that we would have liked to have been able to do but don’t have time to do, or the skills set. The wood carvings were a huge part of ours, as well as we wanted to incorporate a game that would make the AR experience interesting for all ages. We also wanted to include some animation; whether it be making the wood carvings within the hall come to life or animating some aspects of the painting. We pitched these ideas nevertheless because it was ideas that we all liked, and the people from the museum loved it which is what counts.

Overall, the museum was happy with our ideas and what we had produced in terms of a prototype. Presenting is never really my thing, but it went well and I’m happy with it! This project was a nice way of finishing off the internship. I met some wonderful people, who I hope to keep in touch with and see again sometime in the future. I wish them all good luck with their final project and the rest of their course.

As promised, here is the link to our promo video:

https://youtu.be/-BmNDYo3Z3c

And here is the link to the linear video, where you can see what our AR experience is like:

https://youtu.be/vYlKsxi714g

My next project is an artificial reality (AI) task of creating a chatbot for a real estate company here in Denmark and combining their date with a data company called Dingeo, so that will be interesting. I’m actually quite excited to learn about chatbots and create one.

It’s almost Easter time, so I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!

As always, if you enjoyed this, please check out my other blog posts and feel free to like and reblog this post.

Also, if you would like to follow me on my social media’s, they are:

Twitter: @laurenstudy or @unl0st_

Instagram: @laurengausden or @loz.fotos

Or you can find them on the home page of my blog.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them and I’d be more than happy to reply.

Lauren

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laurengausden · 5 years

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I visited @tivolicph in February with a group of other exchange students and I had so much fun! Tivoli is such a beautiful place, especially their winter theme, and I can't wait to see their next one. If you plan on going to Copenhagen, and Tivoli is open, then you have to visit! here are a few photos from that day, I hope you enjoy!😋 . . . #denmark #københavn #copenhagen #cph #coloursofdenmark #tovoli #themepark #themeparkphotography #denmarklife #denmark🇩🇰 #photosofdenmark #photography #photo #tourist #tourist_pic #tourist_places #tivoligardens #tivolicph #visitdenmark #exchangestudentlife #erasmuslife #erasmus #scotlandexchange #exchange #copenhagenexploring #copenhagensworld #camera #canon #canon1300d (at Tivoli) https://www.instagram.com/loz.fotos/p/BvXOxp6B04J/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1js19sic6xzps

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laurengausden · 5 years

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Student Accommodation: Scotland Vs Denmark

Hello! Here is this week's new blog post, I hope that you enjoy! Also sorry for rambling again...

Student Accommodation: whilst being a student in your own country vs being an exchange student

Having the opportunity to live in student accommodation whilst attending university is something that I believe that every university student should take advantage of as it is a good learning experience and is an experience itself. It allows you to learn about different cultures as typically you are sharing a flat with exchange and international students, well from both my experiences that is the case.

When living in student accommodation for my first year of university at Edinburgh Napier, I was living with 7 other students from all around the world, and only one other being from Scotland (two of them, however, had lived in Scotland previously or have lived there longer than their birth country but still…) so I was able to experience so many different cultures at once. I got to experience Italian, French, German, Norwegian (sort of), Bulgarian and there was a girl who had travelled a lot, so she had a bit of everywhere she lived. It was also nice to learn more about those countries. Sharing a kitchen with 7 other people, however, was quite challenging and sometimes it was difficult but throughout that year I learned a lot and I believe that I developed as a person. It is an opportunity that I am glad I have experienced. It was also my first time living away from home for more than a week so you could say that it was a big step for me.

So, what is the point in this blog post? I wanted to talk about the difference between the student accommodation back home in Scotland and the one here in Copenhagen, Denmark. Back home, I am just a regular student studying in my own country which sometimes can be considered weird as typically student accommodation is usually for exchange and international students, but it is open to students who live in that country. You just aren’t first on the list, which is what happened with me and I wasn’t sure if I was going to get the place. Starting university was a huge change in my life, and was almost a fresh start; I had gone through my first serious break-up, I had graduated college and I had gotten my first proper job, so I was going through a lot of firsts so why not add another? Starting university and moving out for the first time. Which is why I just decided to go for it, because what’s the worst that could happen? Nothing.

Anyway, student accommodation here in Copenhagen is very different. Maybe it’s because I’m the exchange student this time, but who knows? It was hard to figure out if KEA (the university I am doing my exchange semester at) had student accommodation or not which kind of worried me because I knew it was going to be hard to find another form of accommodation for such a short amount of time, which it was. I was still looking for whatever I could find despite my name being down on the waiting list and knowing that exchange students got priority of the housing. I was over the moon when I found out that I got accepted and had been given a place in the housing as it meant it was one less thing to worry about, even if I had to worry about how to pay it all off. Unfortunately, I almost didn’t accept the housing offer as they wanted it to be all paid off at once, but I managed to sort that out as if I didn’t then I might not be here today.

For student accommodation back home, all I shared was the kitchen and I was given my own bedroom and bathroom which was great, but here in Copenhagen, it is like your average flat, so I share a bathroom and a kitchen. However, unlike back home, there is no living room area which is rather annoying as it means there is no sofa/couch, so you have to get used to sitting on uncomfortable kitchen/dining room table chairs. That sucks… a lot. Another difference is that back home, I was in a building that was just for students as it was purely student accommodation, but here in Copenhagen, the flats are normal flats in which the university rents out from a normal flat scheme, so we are sharing a building with families and such. That is one major difference which I didn’t think would be, but it is.

There wasn’t much difference in the living situation as I just lived like I normally would. Living in student accommodation has taught me how to budget because I wanted to treat it like properly moving out and having my own flat, so I didn’t want to live off my parents or anything like that. I would say that it could be very helpful to get a job even if you are an exchange student, which may be hard, but why not? As every little helps. I will note that I do miss having my own bathroom, but I am glad that I am having this opportunity again, especially as an exchange student.

I know I got a bit sidetracked throughout all of this, but I thought it might be interesting to talk about the differences. I was unsure about this topic but one of my friends said it could be interesting so I thought I would give it a go.

As always, if you enjoyed this, please check out my other blog posts and feel free to like and reblog this post.

Also, if you would like to follow me on my social media’s, they are:

Twitter: @laurenstudy or @unl0st_

Instagram: @laurengausden or @loz.fotos

Or you can find them on the home page of my blog.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them and I’d be more than happy to reply.

Lauren

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laurengausden · 5 years

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Introducing Me

Hello! Thank you for choosing to read my blog. I thought I would introduce myself.

My name is Lauren, I’m twenty years old and from a not-so-small town in Scotland, UK. I currently study Digital Media and Interactive Design Global at Edinburgh Napier University. I am in the last semester of my third year out of four years meaning I am doing a bachelor’s degree (Bachelor of Science, BSc (Hons). The global part of my degree means that I am open to an exchange semester abroad, or an exchange year abroad. So, I am currently doing an exchange semester in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is mainly what my blog is about.

I am an exchange student at KEA - School of Design and Technology where I am doing an internship in Digital Design. The internship involves different projects over a 4 or 5 week period where we work with different companies from Denmark. To find out more about my projects, please check out my blog posts.

Before going onto study at Edinburgh Napier, I completed an HNC Degree in Creative Industries: Media and Communications and graduated with a B Grade in my graded unit. Completing an HNC degree, which is equivalent to the first year of a university degree meant that I was able to get direct entry to the second year of university.

Some other small facts include:

I’m a Capricorn, as my birthday is the 27th of December.

I’m a cat person, but that isn’t to say I don’t love dogs!

I have no idea what I want to do after university…

If you would like to follow my social media, here are the links!

Twitter: my account for this blog is @laurenstudy and my personal account is @unl0st_

Instagram: my photography/spam account is @loz.fotos and my personal account is @laurengausden

Tumblr: my personal Tumblr is hexveninhiding.tumblr.com

Thank you so much for following! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them.

Lauren

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