Open Simulator Community Conference: VR in Higher Ed
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The document discusses efforts to bring virtual reality into higher education at Empire State College SUNY. It provides: 1) An overview of the timeline of initial efforts using Second Life and continued integration into courses by instructors, along with challenges faced. 2) Examples of how VR has been used in specific courses to encourage experimentation, create a sense of community, and allow modeling of best practices. 3) Discussion of moving to more open-source platforms like Kitely to allow student participation and hosting virtual residencies and think tanks to further the use of VR in education.
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Open Simulator Community Conference: VR in Higher Ed
- 1. CHALLENGING GOLIATH: Bringing Virtual Reality into Higher Education Creating courses and community within academia Eileen.oconnor@esc.edu Nicola.Allain@esc.edu Al Ritondo, Salie Davis & Cheryl Moore Avatars invade the hallowed halls Creative Commons licensed basic VR building, geared around Kitely & Firestorm viewer - https://sites.google.com/view/vrmarian/home
- 3. Topics and areas covered • Timeline for the instructors and Empire State College SUNY • Initial efforts with Second Life • Continued integration by instructors; the bumps along the road to wider implementation • Meetings and courses • Student work — examples provided • Steps towards greater usage – Immersive Residency & Institute for New Paradigms
- 4. Value of Immersive VR to higher education — particularly in online courses and programs • Overcomes isolation; creates a sense of community • Creates a sense of space and presence • Encourages experimentation and shared development • Allows modeling of best practices • Encourages innovation and creativity with new immersive medias • CHALLENGES – downloading; learning curve (but younger students coming); uninformed academic community; scarcity of instructional-design support thus becomes individual faculty / program effort
- 5. Building began in the mid 2000’s
- 7. SUNY Empire State College Saratoga Springs East Campus Alumni House @28 Union Ave. SUNY Empire State College Alumni House in Second Life Initial Second Life (SL) funding for Dr. Allain lead to the re-creation of a campus building and the premise for the “Future of Being Human” course
- 8. The Future of Being Human
- 9. FOBH Second Life Activity • Step 1: Experience transformation. • Step 2: Transport to various worlds. • Step 3: Explore future, past and imagined worlds in this form, using scientific methodology within a framework of biological advances, artificial life, and emerging technologies • Step 4: Write a 500-word report based on your experiences using a scientific approach.
- 10. Other buildings on the SL virtual campus were inspired by nearby historical locations in Saratoga, NY
- 11. Initial foray with Second Life by O’Connor — 2007 Support from Empire State College: — training on basic artifact creation — support during meetings — some artistic island developments — small grants for private islands with K12 -> pilot study & publication (O’Connor’s interest)
- 12. Bringing to other faculty and instructional designers • Grassroots effort to bring to other faculty and instructional designers: • Some participation, however, no ongoing support from ESC • O'Connor and Allain continued to work in their own SL environments; as did several other faculty • Faculty effort to maintain islands once funding ceased and islands became more expensive • Move to open source, Kitely, 2012
- 14. Moving to open source — a platform where students could work as well • Explored several different vendors — Kitely proved to be reliable and cost-effective • Moved course meetings into this space and developed a courses where students developed their own open- simulator environments • Created a complete set of start up developer materials https://sites.google.com/view/vrmarian/home
- 15. Continued promoting within the SUNY system — "soft" promotion within the ESC graduate school • Interest seems active within SUNY Online, however: • Not sufficient time for instructors to do all the professional development needed to bring in colleagues • Instructional designers not always supportive— too much overhead • Islands were perceived as expensive • Competition from other e-communication tools • Engaged other faculty in research and development however: • Some concerns surfaced; tenure and promotion • Innovative technologies can be considered disruptive and threatening
- 16. Students move beyond the course – using instructor- developed online tutorials (Creative Commons) A social-worker, to the left, discusses his VR social work environment at an international conference Other students join in peer- reviewed publication efforts Image owned by and shared by Wales Brown
- 17. VR - immersive 2d/3d Setting for social worker professional development; many venues on these islands – this section replicates a theory- foundation institute Parent Education Network in Kitely Islands may change
- 18. Immersive 2d/3d – VR can foster immersion and culture ● Experiences for learners from many countries that are becoming acclimated to the USA ● ESOL EFL in Kitely Islands may change
- 19. VR - immersive 2d/3d Historic Japanese setting, for K12 social studies instruction – 2016FA1 in Kitely Islands may change
- 20. VR - immersive 2d/3d Innovative design from graphic artist – immersive creative instructional experience for his students Eugenio Trainer in Kitely Islands may change
- 21. Research & publication on VR applications, here is a study of community &collegiality; third meeting: sandbox-level shared building Oh my goodness! It looks like your group had so much fun.You definitely let your creative juices flow! I'm jealous, I generally stayed within realistic limitations. I feel like I totally missed the fun of being in a VIRTUAL environment! Good job! – quote from discussion board, after the session
- 22. Students Speak for Themselves Al Ritondo – Video Production World Salie Davis – Multiverse Masters Cheryl Moore – Pix-elated
- 27. Indoor Lighting Three-Point Lighting
- 29. Amphitheater
- 31. Categories on the survey Reviewer 1 Reviewer 2 Reviewer 3 Reviewer 4 Registration easy Strongly agree Strongly Agree Agree Agree Navigation primer clear Strongly agree Strongly Agree Agree Agree Welcome video helpful Strongly agree Strongly Agree Agree Agree Three-point lighting explained well Strongly agree Strongly Agree Indifferent Agree TV studio good for camera switching Disagree Strongly Agree Indifferent Indifferent Reflector & scrim explained well Agree Strongly Agree Agree Indifferent Good instruction on boom balancing Agree Agree Agree Agree Good instruction on dolly movement & camera Disagree Agree Agree Disagree Video production tutorials helpful Strongly agree Strongly Agree Indifferent Agree Discussion topics were stimulating Indifferent Indifferent Agree Indifferent Felt like hands-on Agree Agree Indifferent Indifferent Enough info to do Snapshot assignments Strongly agree Strongly Agree Agree Agree Enough time to complete assignments Strongly agree Strongly Agree Indifferent Strongly Agree I would recommend to others for learning video Strongly agree Strongly Agree Agree Indifferent
- 33. I am an Avatar Not a freak.
- 34. I am here to teach
- 35. I am here to Learn
- 36. • As students, educators, and professionals we must support each other as we teach and learn together.
- 41. Real-World Practice for Financial Education
- 42. How to Combat Financial Fragility? Self-efficacy – a person’s belief in their ability to affect a desired outcome through their own behavior Build capacity with information, tools, and practice Inspire behavior change
- 43. Budget Exercise Task List • Groceries • Gift for a Friend • Lunch • Buy a Need • Buy a Want • Pay Credit Card • Savings
- 45. Educational Approach Self-directed Applied Learning Problem Solving Gamification of Personal Financial Management Detailed Presentation Sunday 5:30 PM Pacific Pilot Study: Immersive Financial Education for Building Positive Money Habits
- 46. Moving forward with faculty / program efforts • New forms of meetings – a virtual “residency” model under evaluation – substitution for a course activity? Substitution for a physical weekend experience? • Pilot study • Ongoing / expanding program efforts • Within courses; across course • Working on developing a student community through VR • Developing a think-tank among alums, students, other interested parties
- 47. Immersive Residency – October 13, 2018 • 9:00 AM - tech prep / Dean / faculty & alum intros • 9:30 - 10:30 AM: The Virtual to Augmented Reality Continuum - Eileen O'Connor, Ph.D. • Break; move to Empire Learning Design in Kitely; you will be given directions • 11 - 12:00: VR World building - Nicola Allain, Ph.D. • Break • 1 - 1:30 PM: Arts & Media in Virtual Worlds - Nicola Allain • 1:30 - 2:00 PM: STEM group activity - Eileen O'Connor • 2:00 - 3:00 PM: Game Design and Unity Game Engine - Mark Lewis, MA
- 48. Conducting an Immersive Residency, with the Dean, students across courses and programs, and alumni Eight years prior to this event, a previous Dean had come and spoken to students as well
- 49. What things were new or different to you about having a conference in a virtual reality setting? What content was particularly interesting? How can this type of experience be improved in the future? No physical boundary restrictions. People can come together from all over. AR As the technology improves, I believe it will have a natural progression. Like any conference, just sit and listen. World building. Woah that sounds so cool. Can’t wait to try. By being less glitchy but that’s internet based or a lot of people on the island so I understand that but I felt like i was glitching around at one point which was weird It really did make a difference to have a space in which to interact with people and look around. It was much more engaging than other virtual meeting options like a webinar. It took me a little while to get the hang of it but I felt comfortable very quickly. Dr. Allain's discussions about virtual world building and the tour she provided of her beautiful island. I could have used a basic orientation, either at the beginning or prior to the meeting. Just some basics about how to edit my avatar and basic functionality. I would also be interested in a brief overview about how Kitely is being used by educators. The experience is rewarding. Leaps and bounds ahead of a typical webinar setting or conference call. Sense of community. Meeting faculty, current classmates and having inputs from others who have completed the program in the past offers incredible value. I really enjoyed my time today, we touched on a lot of different relevant concepts and I walked away with a greater understanding and appreciation for the work and efforts our faculty put forth. I liked the pace of today's events. I enjoyed the balance of a lecture about VR and AR from Dr. O'Connor and how VR is helping students and faculty collaborate. I enjoyed the walking tour as Dr. Allain explained the intricacies of VR building and re-purposing of objects. Dr. Lewis demystified game design concepts and I look forward to taking his class in the future. I am very new to immersive environments and I really enjoyed the experience. Perhaps we could add a few a few more minutes to STEAM group activity . I know that in our group we sort of got caught up in the activity and had to rush back to next lecture. Thank you! Having a larger group in a virtual world interacting I liked the walking tour and sharing of information in chat. Have two speakers on each subject, one to talk and present and one to answer chat and post resources. Remember to be mindful on walking tours, They are fun but if people get behind we lose the ability to hear the speaker if they are ahead of us. Learning that the Saratoga campus is being re-created in virtual. The design of Professor allain's islands! More formal promotion - Schedule of events.
- 50. Immersive Residency (anonymous survey results) – how VR different from regular conference? • No physical boundary restrictions. People can come together from all over. • Like any conference, just sit and listen. • It really did make a difference to have a space in which to interact with people and look around. It was much more engaging than other virtual meeting options like a webinar. It took me a little while to get the hang of it but I felt comfortable very quickly. • The experience is rewarding. Leaps and bounds ahead of a typical webinar setting or conference call. • Having a larger group in a virtual world interacting • Learning that the Saratoga campus is being re-created in virtual.
- 51. Immersive Residency Improvements – What was interesting? • AR • World building. Woah that sounds so cool. Can’t wait to try. • Dr. Allain's discussions about virtual world building and the tour she provided of her beautiful island. • Sense of community. Meeting faculty, current classmates and having inputs from others who have completed the program in the past offers incredible value. I really enjoyed my time today, we touched on a lot of different relevant concepts and I walked away with a greater understanding and appreciation for the work and efforts our faculty put forth. I liked the pace of today's events. I enjoyed the balance of a lecture about VR and AR from Dr. O'Connor and how VR is helping students and faculty collaborate. I enjoyed the walking tour as Dr. Allain explained the intricacies of VR building and re-purposing of objects. Dr. Lewis demystified game design concepts and I look forward to taking his class in the future. • I liked the walking tour and sharing of information in chat. • The design of Professor allain's islands!
- 52. Immersive Residency Improvements – How can we grow? • As the technology improves, I believe it will have a natural progression. • By being less glitchy but that’s internet based or a lot of people on the island so I understand that but I felt like i was glitching around at one point which was weird • I could have used a basic orientation, either at the beginning or prior to the meeting. Just some basics about how to edit my avatar and basic functionality. I would also be interested in a brief overview about how Kitely is being used by educators. • I am very new to immersive environments and I really enjoyed the experience. Perhaps we could add a few a few more minutes to STEAM group activity . I know that in our group we sort of got caught up in the activity and had to rush back to next lecture. Thank you! • Have two speakers on each subject, one to talk and present and one to answer chat and post resources. Remember to be mindful on walking tours, They are fun but if people get behind we lose the ability to hear the speaker if they are ahead of us. • More formal promotion - Schedule of events.
- 53. Ongoing uses – posters & student presentations Continued use in MALET courses & ongoing student-island development
- 54. Instituting a think-tank to grow and preserve progressive technology- threaded education ideas
- 55. PLAN - Executive; logistics - Scheduling; activities - Advertising; announcing DO - More interactive meetings - Events – island visits / hops – by others - Activities / mini courses - White papers - Others? THINK - Research / pubs - Yours / mine
- 56. Ready Player One? Integrating real and virtual; past & present – AR / VR intersection; open source for prototyping and budget constrained applications
- 57. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT? • AR, AI, better use of google platform for collaborations • Developing images from 360 camera • Photos and portfolios • Adobe Products and certifications, AR from Apple ARKit, WebDesign for students (coding) • Web-worlds • AR project sounds great, how can AR be utilized for corporate training, mobile app development • I might be interested in having people try out a game concept that I've been working on, if I have a prototype. • 360 Cameras for Motion Capture • Availability of Interactive objects for in-world visitors/trainees and tracker devices and other ways to measure visitor movement and activities in Kitely in particular - how to personalize/script them for each world/activity • Unity, Blender, shared project • Opensource options, change management (how to get buy in when introducing new technologies) Unity Game engine, up and coming... walk in web pages and other new technologies, networking technologies old and new. Educational technology tools, the simple, the new and the best. Business technology tools, the simple the new and the best. From survey of INP pilot participants – intersecting interests
- 58. Interest in INP for more study: Survey - 12 responses
- 59. CHALLENGING GOLIATH: Next Steps for Open Source VR • The surging interest through augmented reality is creating interest in virtual reality as well – seeking more cost effective, available platforms for interactions and prototypes • Ongoing / sustained professional development in education venues for VR development; gaining instructional developers in these areas • A good quality web-based interface could be most helpful • 3-D with headsets would be nice but not essential now • Getting large-scale institutions on board with predesigned islands could help the efforts at integration • Studying the new types of interactions – and across “realities” too; developing a conceptual framework for immersion
- 60. So . . . what are we creating for their future?
Notas do Editor
- Presentation Abstract: Challenged to set a vision for technology usage and to create a community within 100% online graduate programs at SUNY/Empire State College, several faculty members began working in 2006 within the college’s Second Life islands. In 2013, the college instituted the Master of Arts in Learning and Emerging Technology (MALET) program, however, the institutional support for the Second Life islands was dwindling. Fortunately, the cost-effectiveness and rapidity of development of open-simulator virtual-reality (VR) environments, came to the rescue. Chronicling the growing use of VR environments, we will highlight how these environments have served for meetings, shared experiences, learning development, and community building. We also created an elective course on VR development and over 30 students have created their own immersive VR learning environments; several students will note their work. This semester, the MALET program piloted its first immersive “residency” on our own VR islands focusing on the topics of augmented and virtual realities, reinforced by the immersive nature of the very conference itself. Furthermore, since spring 2018, we have initiated a progressive, ongoing think-tank about the vision and the challenges facing the integration of true emerging technologies into learning environments, countering the often narrowly focused educational technology programs.
- Students enter a transformation station and select the avatar of their choice from a pre-determined set of avatars. They enter the station in their newbie avatar, and exit transformed. During the transformation process, they receive a HUD and a transportation system to guide their experience of the following activity: Explore the world wearing a differently-abled, differently sized, or technologically enhanced avatar. The transportation system includes a selection of worlds that are from a historical or imagined past, present, and future. Using the HUD and transportation system, the student visits these worlds, and analyze them from the perspective of: Being Human (Avatar) The World Itself Emerging Technologies
- After the three meetings where students posted within the discussion board, conviviality was the overall tone. After the third meeting, when the students had created their own, on-the-fly virtual setting one student wrote, on seeing another team’s posting with a piano bar: Oh my goodness! It looks like your group had so much fun. You definitely let your creative juices flow! I'm jealous, I generally stayed within realistic limitations. I feel like I totally missed the fun of being in a VIRTUAL environment! Good job!
- The concept began as an exercise in teaching three-point lighting, in a Skybox hovering above one of two Empire State College islands in Second Life. Functioning video lights were developed, and once this was achieved, I knew that further concepts could be flushed out in a virtual environment.
- Second Life had just opened up their code. The recent immergence of the open simulator environment made virtual environments now accessible to everyone. I began to design and implement a fully functioning virtual learning environment and named it Video Production World. This provides a way for video production learners to see, experience, situationally engage and learn the tools and techniques of the trade of video production, without leaving home. This saves the traditional costs of traveling to learning conferences, and the conference costs of setting up live learning simulations, leveling the playing field for learners of all economic backgrounds.
- I created way-finding kiosks for easy navigation throughout the island.
- This project was effective in five distinct areas: (1) Harnessing the in-world sun to mimic the real-world sun in helping teach outdoor lighting techniques, through the use of scrims and reflectors;
- (2) Creating working, functional video lights, to teach three-point lighting techniques;
- (3) Achieving in-world balance of cameras on booms with counter weights to teach this type of camera mounting and movement;
- (4) Providing an Amphitheater to play a variety of video production instructional videos;
- And (5) Re-creation of a working, active TV studio, teaching camera switching techniques. Mannequins, or “teaching agents,” were used to play the parts of the camera people, the director and on-stage talent.
- Reviewers of this thesis project had a five choice answer system for their survey. They could express their agreement with terms ranging from Strongly Agree to Agree, to Indifferent, then Disagree and Strongly Disagree. The reviewers were a selection of novices and existing video professionals. Analysis of this data indicated that overall, favorable responses were evenly distributed between novices and professionals, making Video Production World positively received among both types of learner/visitors.
- Video Production World proved that the physical three-dimensional aspects of video production can be taught in a virtual environment with considerable success. Success was achieved in several real world physical replications such as, control of the in-world sun, creating functional and controllable video lights, and developing real-world weight differentials in a virtual environment. Thank you.
- The virtual World is like the Guy Fawkes mask, Some see it as inspirational, others view it with fear and distrust. Is the fear of the virtual world based on its anonymity, technology, or darker fears? I once shared the same prejudice and have learned in my studies that breaking down those fears to help others see the potential of virtual worlds is not an easy task.
- Working as a student I have explored many aspects of the virtual world using my Island in Kitely, Multiverse Masters. I have made builds to serve as a meeting place, for gamification of education, simulations, testing grounds, interactivity, playground family safe games, and for educational content for varied ages and levels.
- I convinced the Graduate Student collaborative to fund a Club Island for presentation displays and to give students a place to practice presenting as well as a place to meet. Out of four fellow officers one was already familiar with virtual worlds, one was hostile and aggressively against it, and two had no opinion.
- I was able to work with Zoom and the two virtual viewers to do a live training. Although I gained support for the attempt, one of the two joining decided the learning curve was to high and the other was open but non-participatory after the training. Feed back from members was also mixed with support only coming from current virtual world users. The College cut the funding for the project after only one month of the Island being live with no reason given other than they felt it was un-necessary as a meeting place. Further involvement of the club in virtual worlds has been tabled until more interest is generated.
- I presented one of my builds, Multiverse Moon Base Masters at the CUNY Gaming Conference in New York City as a proof of concept via distance with the help of an on-site college professor, Mark Lewis. Technology at the conference, though a conference on gaming was Limited, with no internet available to allow for inworld participation. I presented via phone over a portable speaker as the professor controlled slides.
- Later in the day we had live one on one sessions for participants to try out the games designed. Again the campus internet did not allow virtual world connectivity so we used skype conference.
- I shared my screen and walked through the game play while answering questions. This did not allow for in-world interaction, however we worked through the barriers in an attempt to promote the low cost potential the virtual worlds of opensim offers.
- To help support developers I have created tutorial videos and presentations. This one, on virtual world design was presented in-world for the Institute of New Paradigms (INP). I have created curriculum supports on wopoli.com and developer supports on multiversemasters.blogspot.com. I have found the best way to change stigmas and open minds to these opportunities is to research, publish, and promote and have used videos, presentations, websites and blogs to do so. If you are interested in making a positive impact on the opensim community then I would encourage you to do the same.
- As a student of Learning with Emerging Technologies at ESC I became enamored with designing virtual spaces in Dr. O’Connor’s virtual practicum courses. My profession is in financial education so I was inspired to create an environment in which people could have fun while learning something that can be considered boring and also stressful and intimidating. What you are seeing here is an aerial view of the shopping center that serves as the backdrop for financial ed. I created an environment – named Pix-Elated – in which individuals can experience real-world practice and have fun, and then conducted a pilot study to test the environment and examine how to bring financial education into a virtual space. The design is a mixture of realism and simplicity, with a little humor sprinkled throughout. For example, there’s a restroom – as every shopping center needs a restroom.
- As an educator and instructional designer, I follow an approach to financial education that is rooted in these principles, with a focus on behavior and capability – and without judgment. Having a virtual space in which to learn is exciting because people can practice without concern over real-world failure. And, actually, using humor and dynamic visuals is a great way to put people at ease and establish a safe and fun learning space.
- This is an example of a shopping list that can be used to teach budgeting, saving, and prioritization of needs and wants while enabling autonomous decision-making.
- This is the credit union, where learners log their transactions in a tool provided free by Britebank.com. It simulates a checking/saving/and credit card account, providing practice with record-keeping and money-mindfulness. This is an example of an important habit which may not be modeled at home or taught elsewhere, but can be practiced safely in-world. The users in my study really enjoyed using this tool.
- The educational approach involves these elements, which are all very easily achieved in an immersive space. If you’re interested in this work, you can learn more about the study tomorrow evening.