PRACTICAL USE OF OFF-THE-SHELF VIRTUAL REALITY FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION - A LOOK AT THE FEASIBILITY OF NON-EXPERT USE
Paper i proceeding, 2020
The setup of the VR lecture in this case study had the lecturer entering a virtual environment remotely (from another city) using the free VR application Bigscreen VR with students and three observing co-teachers entering the same environment being co-located in one physical room. The lecturer used the Oculus Rift S headset and a VR-capable laptop while the students used the simpler Oculus Go headsets. A predetermined view of the lecturer in the VR-environment was also shown via a projector, as a general fallback.
The study was performed as an action research intervention, and the results were documented with ethnographic observations and a focus group. Compared to established tools for distance education, such as video meetings, the preparation time was significantly longer but the VR setup with off-the-shelf VR hardware and software worked relatively well for the lecture itself. The primary problems encountered concerned the student headsets and the preparation of and interaction with the students in the physical room. In addition to practical issues with managing a larger number of headsets (there were 5 headsets for the students) there were significant problems in getting the audio to work well as well as technical problems with Internet access. During the lecture more behavioral and social issues came to the forefront, for example students being uncertain about how to behave in the unfamiliar environment. Out of five participating students, two experienced discomfort, but were uncertain about how to act and whether it was OK to take off their headsets or not.
Some issues encountered here may be avoided or minimised by raising awareness beforehand and additional preparation. Based on the present study, technical and ethical recommendations are given for which issues should be prioritized and how they may be dealt with, regardless of the educators level of expertise, to be able to successfully conduct a VR lecture.
lectures
Virtual reality
non-expert use
Författare
Daniel Sjölie
Göteborgs universitet
Thommy Eriksson
Chalmers, Data- och informationsteknik, Interaktionsdesign
Mafalda Samuelsson-Gamboa
Göteborgs universitet
Josef Wideström
Chalmers, Data- och informationsteknik, Interaktionsdesign
Learning and Teaching
1755-2273 (ISSN)
Vol. 2020Online, ,
Ämneskategorier
Data- och informationsvetenskap
Pedagogiskt arbete
Lärande och undervisning
Pedagogiskt arbete
DOI
10.21125/edulearn.2020.1139