Lecturer at Roskilde University (Communication Studies) & DIS – Study Abroad in Scandinavia (European Humanities), Academic Support Teacher in Olivia Danmark

agursimsek@gmail.com
+45 22 26 48 99

Visual Communication

Digital Technology

Instructional Design

Communication and Media Research

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

As a producer and educator of digital media, I bring extensive hands-on experience with digital learning tools and the ability to effectively communicate complex phenomena by visual means. Key competences to offer: Teaching, design and research experience in digital media, visual communication, video production, graphic design, strategic communication campaigns, social media and qualitative / quantitative data analysis. Working with interdisciplinary and international teams to develop new courses, online learning tools, interactive educational materials and exhibitions. Administrative and managerial tasks as project coordinator and event facilitator.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

(2022 –  … ) Academic Support Teacher, Olivia Danmark

(2014 –  … ) Instructor, European Humanities, DIS – Study Abroad in Scandinavia

(2012 –  … ) External Lecturer, Dept of Communication and Arts, Roskilde University

(2014 – 2015) Project Coordinator, LysFest på Kulturstrøget, RUC and Roskilde Kommune

(2012 – 2015) Research Assistant / Media Designer, Experience Lab, Roskilde University

(2009 – 2012) PhD Student, Communication, Business & Information Technologies, Roskilde University

(2006 – 2009) Teaching Assistant, Dept of Industrial Design, Halic University

(2004 – 2005) Designer, Akin Nalca Modular Spaces

ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

  • Providing academic support to students with psychological and neurological disabilities in higher education programs, offering subject-specific academic support, which complements the academic learning that takes place in the program.
  • The academic support teacher provides guidance and assistance that can help create an academic overview, structure, and systematic approach to support learning and retention of knowledge.

  • Responsibilities include course planning, teaching bachelor and master’s courses, workshops, supervision of research projects, coordination of programs and seminars (in English and Danish)
  • Collaborating with Danish and International educators, content creators, designers, technicians, programmers, artists, NGOs and municipalities to develop educational projects
  • Advanced LMS Experience with Moodle
  • Management of multiple media production teams working on digital campaigns
  • Extensive teaching experience with international students, also distributed teams, by using content delivery and interaction via the LMS, Online classes and groupwork via Zoom and Teams, hybrid lectures, live-streaming from the classroom with in-person and online participants, open-source tools for digital content creation and analysis (fx. video editing, data visualization, analytics, user surveys)
  • Production-oriented groupwork: Students produce communication campaigns and strategies, then promote solutions by digital/social media (YouTube link to a selection of videos)
  • Focus on humanitarian problems and critical topics with social development purposes such as inclusion/exclusion, discrimination, human rights campaigns, refugee rights and communities, online security, digital privacy and surveillance, hate speech, disinformation on social media

  • Responsibilities include designing and teaching bachelor courses on social media and visual storytelling, co-organizing “Tech Pioneers” group to develop digital solutions to higher education
  • Advanced experience with LMS: Canvas and Blackboard
  • Focus on diversity, inclusion and internationality in education as key principles at DIS
  • Production-oriented / information-oriented theory teaching by using pre-recorded video lectures, asynchronous discussions via LMS, online live lectures, synchronous discussions on Zoom/Teams, hybrid lectures, live-streaming from the classroom with in-person and online participants, social media for internal and external communication, 3D virtual environments, online games and VR
  • Designing modular/scalable learning content, then maintaining the content regularly via LMS
  • Organizing guest lectures and workshops with humanitarian and environmental activists, field-work professionals, non-profit organizations and public institutions for first-hand experience-sharing (fx. Amnesty International, Red Barnet, Greenpeace Nordic, UNICEF, WHY Foundation, Everyday Sexism Project, Venligboerne, Visit Denmark, Copenhagen Pride, ARKEN and Statens Museum for Kunst)

  • Coordinating the design and production process of Lysfesten - lighting design and interactive art event in Roskilde city, with 120+ RUC students building installations in 10+ historical locations
  • Responsibilities include keeping track of the course plan and development progress, communicate with students, designers, technicians and local representatives from municipality and cultural sites, keeping budget and production expanses, managing production teams by the installation process
  • This task improved my ability to collaborate effectively on a learning-based production task with a variety of technical and non-technical actors for a shared goal

  • Responsibilities include interdisciplinary research and design of virtual learning environments and immersive VR applications for education and other public institutions, museums and libraries
  • Development of the “Digital Group Room” as an interactive learning space for RUC students, and focus group research with students about their learning experiences
  • Collaborating with visual artists, programmers, municipalities and public institutions to develop interactive exhibitions (The Italian Drawings, LysFest, Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde)
  • Preparing local/international funding applications and performance reports to funding institutions
  • Organization of academic and professional events and seminars

  • Member of “Sense-making Strategies & User-driven Innovation in Virtual Worlds” Research Group
  • Organization of academic seminars, workshops and events
  • Working in an international and interdisciplinary team of researchers
  • Writing research applications, performance reports and presentations (with Experience Lab)
  • Designing syllabi, assignments and projects for bachelor courses

  • Course planning for bachelor classes and project-oriented design studios. Teaching design studies and practice, computer-aided design, visual communication and ergonomics
  • Organization of academic events, as well as representing the university in local and international conferences, seminars and workshops (fx. Torino World Design Capital)

  • Design of commercial exhibition spaces in partnership with German partner Burkhardt Leitner
  • 3D modeling, animation and presentation of design ideas as visual communication with our clients

  • Design of corporate identity projects, logos and official brand communication for our clients
  • 3D animation and storyboarding for visual communication projects

EDUCATION

(2009 – 2012) – Ph.D., Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies, Roskilde University (DK)

(2004 – 2007) – Master of Science, Department of Industrial Design, Istanbul Technical University (TR)

  • Thesis title: Design and New Media: Towards an Analysis of New Media Culture through Design Perspective

(2000 – 2004) – Bachelor of Industrial Design, Middle East Technical University (TR)

SCHOLARSHIPS

(2011) – Stanford University – Human Sciences & Technologies Advanced Research Institute (H-STAR), USA

  • Visiting researcher scholarship by the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation [DASTI] and Innovation Center Denmark

(2005 – 2006) – Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e), Department of Industrial Design, NL

  • ERASMUS Exchange Student in the Master of Industrial Design Program

MEMBERSHIPS AND AFFILIATIONS

Freetown Social Club, Board Member, non-profit international musicians’ charity collective (2015 – )

  • Freetown Social Club is musical, multicultural project based on the joy of musical interaction and the desire to promote tolerance among people, supporting events for the homeless in Copenhagen, microloans to women entrepreneurs, clothes and toys for children in asylum centers plus various sponsorships of schools and children in need. I maintain the website: http://freetownsocialclub.dk/

European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), Member (2010 – )

Orange Innovation / MakerSpace @ Roskilde Festival and Musicon Roskilde (2013 – 2014)

RoskildeNyt, Author, Digital Culture & Technology News @ Official Roskilde Festival Blog (2013 – 2015)

Nordic Virtual Worlds Network (NVWN),Steering Committee(2012 – 2014)

Danmark mod Landminer, Volunteer – Roskilde Festival (2009 – 2010)

COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN & TEACHING

Adobe Premiere (Advanced)

Adobe Photoshop (Advanced)

Adobe InDesign (Advanced)

Adobe Illustrator (Intermediate)

ShotCut (Video) (Advanced)

Lightworks (Video) (Advanced)

DaVinci Resolve (Video) (Advanced)

Articulate Rise (Advanced)

Articulate Storyline (Advanced)

Evolve (Intellum) (Advanced)

Canvas (Advanced)

Moodle (Advanced)

Blackboard (Advanced)

Udemy (Intermediate)

WordPress+Gutenberg (Advanced)

Elementor (Intermediate)

Unity 3D (Advanced)

3D Studio MAX (Advanced)

Sketch-Up (Advanced)

Rhinoceros (Advanced)

AutoCAD (Advanced)

Microsoft Office Pack (Advanced)

Atlas TI (Intermediate)

NVIVO (Intermediate)

Mendeley (Advanced)

PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCE PAPERS

(2022). An interdisciplinary design process / Un processo di progettazione interdisciplinare, in Light and the City, Bjørn Laursen (ed.), Lettera Ventidue. 

(2014). Designing virtual worlds: Multimodality and co-creation of meaningful places in multi-user virtual environments. Online Journal of Art and Design (OJAD), Volume: 2, Issue: 2, April 2014 (international peerreviewed journal), ISSN: 2301 – 2501. (*)

(2014). Multimodality and Design of Interactive Virtual Environments for Creative Collaboration: A Social Semiotic Perspective, Ørecomm Voice and Matter Conference: 4th Annual Communication for Development Event, Roskilde University, September 2014.

(2013). Making (sense of) places in virtual worlds: Collaborative design and multimodal communication in multi-user virtual environments. Dialects of Design Education and Research Conference in 2013 IDA Congress, Istanbul, Turkey, Nov 2013 (conference cancelled for reasons of Force Majeure) (*)

(2012). Book review: Being there together: Social interaction in virtual environments. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. Vol.18. pp. 112-114 (*)  

(2010). Future of virtuality in-the-making: Reflections from Stanford University, online publication for The Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. (link to Uddannelses- og Forskningsministeriet page)

(2010). Co-designing virtual worlds: Multi-disciplinary collaboration in design of an immersive virtual laboratory (Metrotopia) in Second Life. In “Making Sense of Virtual Worlds as Sites of Innovation in Communication”. ECREA 3rd European Communication Conference, Hamburg. Oct 2010.

(2010). Learning how to design in Second Life: An analysis of Virtual World affordances/constraints on collaborative content creation in social worlds. Association of Internet Researchers AoIR Internet Research 11 Conference, Gothenburg. Oct 2010.

(2010). Co-creating ‘Second Life’: An analysis of collaborative co-design processes of interactive virtual environments in community-authored social virtual worlds. In ‘Making Sense of Virtual Worlds and User Driven Innovation’ Workshop proceedings (extended abstract), Magleås Kursuscenter. June 2010. 

(2010). Design for the virtual world: Impressions from the 2nd Metaverse-U Conference at Stanford University. XXI. July 2009.

(2009). Design for the virtual world: User-driven innovation in Second Life and the role of design in multiuser virtual environments. 2nd Transforming Audiences Conference, Westminster University, London. Sep 2009.

(2009). Sense-making and user-driven innovation in Virtual Worlds. Presentation in 2nd Metaverse-U Conference. Stanford University, San Fransisco. May 2009.

(2009). Design, innovation and emotional experience in Virtual Worlds. Public presentation at Roskilde University. Feb 2009.

(2009). The story of Metrotopia: Notes from the design process of a virtual city. Public presentation at Roskilde University. Sep 2009.

(2007). Cyberspace and virtual environments as contemporary realms of symbolic exchange: Mediatization of self-identification in post-industrial society. Transforming Audiences, Westminster University, London. Sep 2007.

(2007). Interfaces of the real: Semantic discourse on object and consumption in interactive product design. In 7th International EAD07 Conference proceedings (full-paper). European Academy of Design and Izmir University of Economics. April 2007. (*)

(2006). Tasarim ve Anlam Uzerine Yeni Yönelimler: Etkileşim Tasanmı ve Yeni Medya. In 3rd National Design Congress proceedings (full-paper), Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul. June 2006. Pp. 465-476.

(2005). Future directions in product semantics: New media objects and cyberspace. In Design and Semantics of Form and Movement Conference proceedings (full-paper), Northumbria University, Newcastle. Nov 2005. pp. 90-97. (*)

(2005). Dutch Design Week. Gürsimsek, R.A. and Gürsimsek, O.A. XXI. Nov 2005.

ARTICLES WRITTEN FOR ROSKILDE FESTIVAL

RETHINK ROSKILDE (2013)

  1. Illutron: interactive art in public spaces
  2. Re-thinking mobile charging
  3. Digitally augmented spaces in Roskilde Festival
  4. Co-creating the festival as a playground for innovation

ROSKILDENYT (2014)

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