Jenn’s Week 5 Blog

Week 5 Blog–Immersive VR

• Top 20 Basic Questions & Responses

 

• Why did we choose the Lehigh Valley watershed as our subject content/ matter?

 

1. 1. • We chose the Lehigh Valley watershed as our content matter for this venture because the impact, while local, can be generalized to include any watershed around the globe and now the impact is global. → easily scalable
      • Place-based instruction, authentic/relatable material, watersheds function as “circulatory system” of the environment. 
      • Science, especially environmental topics such as watersheds don’t generally attract much interest through traditional teaching methods so it is a good topic to gamify and garner interest in

 

• Why are we focusing on the water?

 

1. • We have chosen to focus on the water because it is an important natural resource. It is critical that individuals understand how small habits (e.g., throwing your water bottle out of your raft) can have large impacts on those natural resources. 

• Water is everywhere, water is one of the most important and easiest topics for developing STEM integrated curricula.

 

 

• What is the focus of our venture, the watershed or the educational technology?

 

1. 1. • The focus of our venture is educational technology. We use VR technology to re-engage the disengaged learner. Digital learners are the future. People are increasingly dependent on technology, instead of fighting to disconnect them, it’s more efficient to engage them with a platform to which they are already inclined.

 

• What are the Environmental outcomes we want our venture to have?

 

1. 1. • Ideally, students come away from our venture with a better understanding of their impact on their environment and more consideration for their future actions.
      • This is not an outcome which will be measured because it is not the primary focus for our venture, merely a bonus.

 

• What are the Social outcomes we want our venture to have?

 

1. 1. • In the virtual space, skills are taught and practiced in a simulated environment.  Not only does it provide a near realistic experience, but the environment is safe.  Additionally, most VR platforms allow learners to continually practice skills and it offers managers and/or leaders the ability to coach to specific skills.
      • As we are currently partnering with local nature centers, the social impact we want our venture to have is to bring more visitors to these sites. 
      • We hope to have a positive impact on the way people view their relationship with their environment, similar to how DARE curricula aims at creating healthy social behavior among teens with drug education

 

• What are the Educational outcomes we want our venture to have?

 

1. 1. • The students are more aware of the environment in Lehigh Valley. Their interest in water and environmental science may be piqued and become more environmentally responsible.
      • “With the popularity of virtual reality and mixed reality, immersive learning has emerged as one of the “hot” educational technologies that are transforming not only the educational system; but also helping companies plan better training programs for their employees.”

 

• How are we measuring success? 

 

1. 1. • We will not be directly measuring the environmental outcome of this venture
      • We will measure the social outcomes of our venture by measuring the traffic at partner nature centers and returning customers to our venture’s business
      • We will be measuring the educational outcomes for our venture by assessing our partnerships with other university students/professors who are utilizing our product to conduct educational research and having our name connected to this line of research where we can act as a connection between researchers.

 

• What are the concrete details we are looking at that will tell us our product is working?

 

1. 1. • Concrete details we are looking at that will tell us our product is working is continued and expanding relationships with the educators using our product; individuals who are better informed about their environment and local resources.
      • More people come to us to make games/use our game to teach about environmental science topics.
      • Sales reports

 

• Currently, what does the market for immersive learning apps look like?

 

1. • https://www.immersivelearning.news/tag/market/
   • An expected market value of about $12 billion through 2022
   • Several Fortune 500 companies, such as Boeing, UPS, and Walmart, have already introduced VR into worker education programs on a massive scale .
   • A report on the global VR market in the education sector, the increased number of VR social spaces has opened up opportunities for growth in this sector.
   • “This was one of the top elearning trends in 2019, and there is a big chance that its influence won’t abate anytime soon.”

Virtual Reality (VR) in education

1. 1. • “The intense adoption of VR in education is partly due to the increased demand for experience training. By taking the learning process beyond the classroom, VR facilitated the growing trend toward the independent learning path. For example, the medical realities platform employs VR technology to help medical students watch live broadcasts of mock surgeries, providing real-world experiences – something they would not normally have access to until the end of their education.”
      • “According to our latest report on the global VR market in the education sector, the increased number of VR social spaces has opened up opportunities for growth in this sector.”

 

• What is our target demographic for users? 

 

1. 1. • Our target demographic for users are people from ages 13-80 in non-formal education settings

 

• Who is our market that will invest in the product?

 

1. 1. • We have several markets who will invest in our product: alternative learning environments like nature centers; non-traditional schools; virtual learning environments
      • Given the “new normal” of education during Covid, virtual learning environments are the best way to keep students, teachers and the community safe

 

• How is this different from what is already on the market? 

 

• Most of the products on the market are developed for different subjects, not environmental science
• Engaging educational material is hard to find; our product includes both a lesson plan and the materials necessary to implement 
• We lower the barrier of adoption by providing the technology ready to go and other assistance services such as tutorial videos

 

• How do you see the future market for this product? Is this just a fad?

 

1. 1. • We believe that the market for this product and similar technologies will continue to grow in the future. While gaming has always been seen as a form of entertainment, it has also been used to incorporate lessons such as strategy and critical thinking. For example, Go or chess. Today, gamification is already being incorporated into multiple sectors of our lives to motivate higher user engagement with interface designs such as unlocking “levels” in commercial activity when you spend a certain amount in a year.
      • Educators will be looking for ways to keep their students engaged when not in the classroom. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, every classroom (and workplaces) became non-traditional learning environments. VR has demonstrated its potential to bridge the distance gap while engaging the learner, providing the sense of presence. Thus, it is unlikely that VR will be just a fad.

 

• Why are we using VR as our platform? 

 

1. 1. • “Humans learn best by doing, and VR is designed to espouse this principle.”
      • “VR provides an immersive experience anchor to the theoretical part of learning.”
      • “Its ability to support distance learning is a well-timed intervention, especially in the modern workplace where remote work is the new norm”. With the social disruption caused by COVID-19, it seems that Virtual Reality is the only safe Reality.

 

• What are the benefits compared to the high cost?

 

1. 1. • In terms of cost, it is more expensive to organize a trip down the Lehigh river for a group of students than it is to take them on the same tour virtually. In addition, in the virtual environment, we can take learners back in time so they can “see” the effects of past behaviors. We can’t actually take them on a trip down the river in the early 1900’s on the maiden voyage of a canal boat.

 

• What exactly are we doing that makes this gamified and will make students more engaged?

 

• Creating compelling narratives that are place-based (i.e., real locations, relatable to the audience) 
• Creating immersive learning experiences with elements of gamification and the theoretical framework of game-based learning. 

 

“This is different from game based learning. Game based learning is an approach of learning where students learn experimentally through playing in a game context. Gamification is slightly different in that it is taking game elements such as points or achievements and applying them to a non-game environment. It’s a form of user interface design that increases engagement through manipulating what makes people drawn to games in settings that are not. We apply this type of design to our product where users are unlocking achievements through exploring the built environment. This creates a sense of accomplishment and recognition for what they are doing which encourages further activity.”

 

 

• What is our expertise? Why are we qualified?

 

• Instructional Technology from Lehigh University.
• Diverse/interdisciplinary team of students and professors. 
• Our team has significant experience in areas that include design and implementation of iVR learning, game-based learning, instructional design, research in the area of science, learning with novel technologies, environmental content, and spatial understandings.
• Our project mentors Bodzin, Anastasio, and Hammond have an established track record of prior success with implementation and management strategy on related projects (see for example, Bodzin, Anastasio, & Sahagian, 2015; Bodzin et al., 2015, Bodzin et al., 2016; Carrigan et al., 2019; Hammond et al., 2018).

 

 

• What are the risks associated with using VR headset technology, if any? 

 

Health hazards:

– Motion sickness, nausea. 

– According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) (2020) too much screen time can harm the amount and quality of sleep as well as lead to other physical and social problems. Since VR easily provides high levels of engagement and triggers flow state, one must be mindful of the amount of time they spend with their headsets on.

 

Other related risks:
– A group of scholars (see Makransky, Terkildsen, & Mayer, 2019) have been conducting research based on the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) and their preliminary findings point to immersive VR being a possible source of less learning when compared to more traditional instructional media.

 

 

• How are these risks being addressed?

 

• It may not be suitable for everyone so general precautions are to use the technology for short periods of time and see if you have any adverse effects to it. Also, we are targeting the population from 13-80 in which they are above the minimum age advisory for the technology. There is a desktop VR version for those who are unable to use the standalone headset.

 

 

• How do you plan to fund your venture/ who’s going to pay?

 

• Initial funding during the research and dissemination phases will be the University and grants from different organizations whose programs are in line with our venture’s vision. After that, we will be working on building scale with our product from local to regional in order for our venture to be self-sustaining. Ideally, we would be reaching a steady state by two years after launching our product. 

 

Nice work! Good thought into everything. Grade: 10