Much has changed these last few years in the gaming industry. Until recently, real-time/interactive 3D has had something of a stigma associated with it when it came to education. Happily, in the spirit of inquiry, research has continued to verify its potency for creating memorable and engaging experiences.
We’ve been in possession of an Oculus Rift (development kit 2) for a while now and it’s provided us with some exciting opportunities to do with Learning & Teaching Innovation. We’re currently working with Psychology staff to create virtual environments for use in research and have been awarded funding to pursue some other ideas with measurable outcomes. We’re trying to establish best practice in this new medium and need to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Trying to force the use of VR in a non-complimentary medium would be a massive waste of time and could end up as redundant work.
It’s not so easy to identify the areas of use however as some of the most text-heavy subjects (Land Law as an example) stand to benefit greatly from the offerings of VR. Imagine being able to walk around a virtual village and identify disputes over property boundaries or the potential VR has to create dynamic data visualizations. If you thought 2D infographics were informative, imagine where it could go with something more immersive and with a real sense of scale.
The obvious choices for VR would be things like paramedic science, subjects involving roleplay scenarios. Potentially we could have partner institutions interacting with another over seas in ways which were previously impossible. Multi-user VR environments hold a lot of promise in this regard and I’m hoping to be able to explore those ideas further.
More recently, I’ve completed some work with the Oculus Rift, it’s a virtual representation of our largest presentation space, the Weston Auditorium at the University of Hertfordshire. See the video below for a demonstration!
This is based on work I did some time ago, I’ve just made it work with the Oculus Rift. It’s taken a long time but I’ve optimised my workflow substantially since the old days.
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