Interdisciplinary collaboration in higher education: Improving end-user experience in children’s programs

While higher educational institutions prize interdisciplinary research collaboration, how it is supported is key to its success. In this discussion paper, we explore the evidence base to support interdisciplinary research collaboration in relation to our team’s experiences with our project, output and impact. Project end-users are those who educate and support children from defence, veteran and first responder families (service families), who encounter unique stresses. Our team co-designed and co-created free, online, research-based resources to address these issues. Initially, the accessibility of these online web-based educational resources was found to be inadequate. To improve on the webbased resources housed on a digital learning platform, the team connected with a machine vision digital health researcher to co-create a free, anonymous, personalised program for users. Here, interdisciplinary approaches were essential to help solve problems with end-user experience identified in the initial evaluative feedback about the digital learning platform. To address these, a data retrieval system was generated to create personalised programs. Participants were affected communities and partners, including educators, partner providers, parents and support workers. Preliminary results showed an improvement in program engagement. Additionally, the team has received positive qualitative feedback about the end-user experience showcasing the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in elevating online educational support. These outcomes will be of interest to researchers, management and policymakers.