C-Academy launches XR Experience with AR in schools
C-Academy has introduced a design thinking programme that weaves Augmented Reality (AR) into its learning outcomes, giving secondary school pupils the chance to build immersive solutions for challenges affecting communities across Singapore.
The XR Experience marks a shift in how design education uses technology, with AR embedded in students’ prototyping and presentation practices rather than treated solely as a demonstration. Participants finish the programme with an operational AR prototype and a clear narrative for sharing their ideas with stakeholders, making their learning both visible and portable.
The academy frames creativity as best developed through application to actual problems. By placing AR at the centre of design tasks, learners apply emerging tools to realise concepts. Each participant leaves with a tangible prototype and a documented account of the design and problem-solving process they followed.
The launch aligns with national priorities for digital transformation and education. Singapore is emphasising the development of future-ready capacities among young people, and the Ministry of Education’s enhanced 21st Century Competencies (21CC) Framework highlights critical, adaptive and inventive thinking. C-Academy’s programmes are crafted to develop these same competencies.
The approach also supports the broader Digital for Life initiative, which aims to encourage Singaporeans to adopt digital habits across their lives. Extended Reality (XR), which includes AR, Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality, is presented by authorities as a practical set of tools for working more efficiently, speeding up innovation and creating engaging experiences for users. C-Academy argues that introducing these skills at the secondary school level through real projects helps prepare students for the digital economy before they enter the workforce.
The XR Experience rests on four pillars that set it apart from conventional technology or design workshops. First, students tackle real-world challenges. Project briefs are rooted in issues that affect Singapore communities today. Previous work has focused on sustainability within school environments, the preservation of cultural heritage, improving accessibility for people with disabilities and reimagining shared learning spaces. These tasks are designed to match Singapore’s aim of creating more liveable places where communities co-design solutions for the spaces they use.
Second, AR is treated as a learning outcome rather than an add-on. Technology is integrated into the design thinking stages, with students using a no-code AR platform to build functioning experiences as part of their solution prototypes. In this way, augmented reality becomes a creative and problem-solving tool rather than a stand-alone demonstration.
Third, the programme emphasises visible outputs. Every participant completes the sequence with deliverables that can be shown to school leaders, parents and community partners, including a functioning prototype and a structured presentation that explains the design journey and the decisions that led to the final solution. This makes the learning demonstrable and easier to share.
Fourth, the curriculum aims to develop future-ready skills. The programme targets five competencies considered crucial for the digital economy: problem framing, empathy, creativity, collaboration and communication. These competencies mirror the Emerging 21st Century Competencies identified by the Ministry of Education and are woven into the programme’s learning activities.
The XR Experience follows C-Academy’s EDIT Design Thinking® methodology, which has been developed by its parent company, Creativeans, over more than a decade of consulting work with business clients. C-Academy has delivered design thinking programmes to secondary school cohorts since 2017, and reports documented improvements in student competencies across several institutions.
Evidence from participating schools points to measurable gains. At one school, assessments of collaboration and teamwork reportedly rose from just over half of participants showing proficiency before the programme to almost complete proficiency afterwards, while problem-solving confidence in the same cohort increased by forty percentage points. Another school recorded a marked improvement in students’ grasp of design thinking, with comprehension levels moving from the low teens to almost seventy per cent after completing the programme.
Programmes that focused on community and conservation themes, delivered in partnership with established environmental organisations, produced notable advances in empathy skills, with participants showing strong gains compared with baseline assessments. Similar patterns of improvement have been reported at other schools that have hosted C-Academy activities, indicating consistent outcomes across different contexts and student groups.
The academy also emphasises assessment and reflection. Each project includes checkpoints where learners review progress, gather feedback from users and adjust prototypes accordingly. Teachers who engage with the programme can expect curricular alignment notes and guidance on how to continue design-led activities in class. The emphasis on iterative testing aims to help students see failure as part of the learning cycle rather than an endpoint. Evidence is publicly documented.
Delivery of the XR Experience relies on a network of technology and community partners. Students build AR prototypes with a no-code platform, while visits to professional design studios expose them to how practitioners approach projects. Community organisations provide project contexts that ground student work in authentic needs and real-world constraints, giving their prototypes a degree of relevance and connection to Singapore’s wider design ecosystem.
The programme is available to secondary schools in Singapore and forms part of a suite of five thematic options. These themes cover sustainability; culture and heritage, community and inclusion; reimagining learning spaces, and the XR Experience, which focuses on augmented reality creation for real-world applications. Each theme is designed to be adaptable to various school contexts and to address issues that resonate with young learners.
C-Academy offers the themes in two formats. A short Discovery format provides introductory exposure over two days, while a longer Journey format spans six sessions and approximately eighteen hours of project-based learning. Both formats can support groups of up to fifty participants and are intended to suit different timeframes and depth of engagement.
C-Academy positions itself as an organisation that brings practical design thinking into schools and other institutions, using authentic challenges as the basis for learning journeys. Programmes are led by locally certified consultants and trainers with recognised qualifications, and the academy operates as the educational arm of Creativeans, a brand and design consultancy with offices in several cities. The organisation states that its guiding belief is that creativity is a universal capacity and that creativity can be learned and practiced by everyone.
