Online learning makes it hard to feel connected. Futures Labs HQ used Questiory to change that for students in Aerospace for Good, and here's what happened.
Case studyOnline learning · Youth pathways
Futures Labs
Aerospace for Good
Otautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand

Four online weeks that changed how students see an industry

Questiory brought social learning into the online weeks of Aerospace for Good. Throughout each lesson, Year 11 students responded, shared and saw what the whole cohort thought, before they had ever met in person.

A satellite in orbit
4weeks of short, self-paced interactive lessons
57Year 11 students
68participatory activities
+4,200student contributions, from votes to drawings
OrganisationFutures Labs HQ
ProgrammeAerospace for Good
AudienceYear 11 students across Ōtautahi/Waitaha (Aotearoa New Zealand)
FormatOut-of-school, online, in students' own time
Built with QuestiorySocial learning activities across the online lessons
The learning journey

Learn to see the system

Over four online weeks, students learn how to think about aerospace, not just what it is. They discover how satellites, data and flight connect to everyday life, and learn to ask whether a technology is actually good: what it does, who it helps, and what it changes for communities and life on Earth.

01See the aerospace ecosystem and how it connects to life on Earth.With QuestioryStudents mapped aerospace in an ordinary day, together.
02Pick up thinking tools: systems, ethics, futures and sustainability.With QuestioryEach tool became a shared exercise, like the "Good?" check.
03Watch short videos, respond to prompts, complete small activities.With QuestioryEvery piece of content ended with a moment to share.
04Notice the questions and possibilities that matter personally.With QuestioryA toolkit of questions, built from each other's answers.
The challenge

Online learning that doesn't feel like homework

A student looking through a telescope pointed at Earth

Aerospace for Good is designed for high-potential Year 11 students. Its online weeks run alongside school and set up everything that follows, from company visits and insider talks to a 48-hour challenge.

"A student joining from a small town far from Christchurch had to feel just as connected to the group as everyone else."

Most digital learning makes that hard. Young people live with constant stimulation, and static courses built block by block lose them fast. Read, take a quiz, read again: learning becomes something to get through, and doing it alone at home only adds to the distance.

The programme needed the opposite. Moments along the way that refresh learners, like water stations in a long run, so each activity gives back energy for the next one. And a way for students to hear from each other, not only content to consume.

Questiory's role

Social learning, right inside the lesson

Questiory's flexibility let the team expand each microlearning with moments of reflection and social learning, embedded directly in the flow of the lesson instead of sent somewhere else.

Questiory makes conversation a natural part of digital learning. Instead of sending learners to a separate forum or LMS activity, it weaves those moments into the narrative they are already moving through.

For Otautahi Futures Lab - Aerospace for Good, Questiory made it possible to build a rich, engaging and complex learning journey with meaningful social moments throughout. Learners were invited to pause and reflect, share their perspectives and experiences, and learn from one another, bringing the online component of the experience to life.

Right where learning happens

Questiory sits right inside the digital experience, wherever the learning happens. Learners never feel they have left the lesson to go and join a discussion.

Part of the story

A question arrives as the next beat of the narrative, not a detour. The journey keeps its rhythm, and nothing feels bolted on or disjointed.

Conversation in the moment

Learners pause, share what they think and see the whole group's answers while the idea is still fresh, then carry that into what comes next.

Inside the experience

Endless ways to start a conversation

Sorting, choosing, rating, pinning, drawing, writing. With Questiory, each microlearning could invite students in a different way, so the conversation kept changing shape across the four weeks.

Multiple choice

Why are you here?

A warm first check-in that shows the group who is in the room.

This or that

Notice what you might be bringing with you

Quick pairs that reveal how each student tends to think.

Valuation

How connected is aerospace to everyday life?

One scale, rated before and after, to make the shift visible.

Short answers

What comes to mind when you hear aerospace?

First thoughts that grow into a live word cloud.

Multiple entry

Leaving Earth or understanding Earth?

Pick a side, explain why, and read everyone else's reasons.

Categorised answers

Think about an ordinary day. Where does aerospace show up?

Students sort everyday examples into shared categories.

Iconic answers

How has your idea of aerospace changed?

An emoji and a sentence to capture a big idea.

Long answers

Where does change feel fastest?

Space to develop an argument in more depth.

Pin on image

Where could information change what happens next?

Students drop pins on a map of a fictional town.

Drawing

Draw a better everyday moment

Imagine a better future and sketch it.

Results

What four online weeks made possible

"I'm starting to see aerospace as a web, with threads in almost every aspect of life."
A Year 11 student
94%left more curious* about aerospace or a connected area*30 of 32 students said "yes, definitely" or "maybe" when asked if the online weeks made them more curious. Curiosity is the programme's own leading indicator of change.
2 to 4Aerospace now feels part of everyday lifeAsked how connected aerospace is to everyday life, from 1 to 5, students' average rating went from 2 before the programme to 4 after.
90%Described a wider picture of aerospace19 of 21 students contrasted an old rockets-and-planes view with something broader.
"Who benefits?"Became the question students ask firstEarly on, whether affected people get a say was the check students used least. By the end, "who benefits from this?" was the question they submitted most when facing a new technology.
The approach

Designed with learning science in mind

Activating prior knowledgeThey built on what they already knewStudents began by sharing what they thought aerospace was: rockets, astronauts, NASA. Each lesson built from that starting point, which is why the shift in their thinking is so clear.
Self-explanationThey reflected in their own wordsAfter each video or idea, students explained, rated and questioned it before moving on. That habit is how "who benefits?" became the first question they ask.
Social constructivismThey learned from each otherSeeing the whole cohort's answers, students met ideas they had not considered, from farming to emergency response. A student joining from Buller saw the same conversation as everyone in Christchurch.
Universal Design for LearningThey found many ways into each ideaWriting, sorting, rating, drawing and pinning places on a map. Offering many ways to engage and express ideas gives every student a way in.

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