Jan Van den Bulck, Select Department | 2022-2023
Many students choose Comm344 “Media and Sleep” to understand their media use habits, their (un)healthy sleeping behaviors, and the interactions between these two areas of life.
Students are confronted with social science, medical, and epidemiological research in the course. They learn to navigate the differences between beliefs and behavior, between subjective and objective measures, and a complicated web of causal assumptions. At a personal level, many are interested to apply the knowledge to their own lives, and explore their own media habits and sleep patterns.
This project develops an online tool that guides students through the course by offering validated measurement scales in a gamified manner. This means that students have experienced the research methods before discussing a topic in class. The instructor has an (aggregated, anonymous) view of the beliefs and behaviors of all students, not just those who speak up in class.
At the end of the process, the students will have learned to use and understand the scientific tools of this cross-disciplinary field and will have applied it to their own lifeworld. They will have the tools to think critically about social science and sleep medicine, causality, and their own beliefs and assumptions.