With the impact of the pandemic forcing the sudden wide-spread adoption of remote education, there is undoubtedly greater interest in online educational tools and resources than ever before.
My prediction is that it will fuel increased research and development into virtual classrooms that use augmented and virtual reality technology to create a new kind of learning experience.
While the ‘classroom of the future’ (which uses technology to help solve remote learning problems) may be closer than we think, our recent COVID-19 experience shows us that we aren’t well prepared for it from a human impact perspective.
Research is crucial to understanding the whole context around technology use and adoption. To illustrate this point, this article shares some of our learnings around the use of extended reality* (XR) in a higher education context.
Background
In 2018, Spatial worked on a collaborative project with BCIT, UBC, SFU and the Centre for Digital Media (CDM) to evaluate extended reality application ideas and unpack issues around implementation, cultural change management, and learning outcomes.
The question we wanted to explore was this: is the promise of XR technology to improve teaching and learning actually supported by measurable outcomes?
Our goal was to provide insights and recommendations to instructors at BCIT for the use of XR as part of a course curriculum and supporting material.
The Promise of XR
Within the context of higher education, the enthusiasm around XR started long before Covid-19. At all the main post-secondary schools across many faculties, there are pockets of R&D exploring XR applications. We were also exploring XR with an interest in evaluating the user experience in a 3D context.
We were introduced to instructors at BCIT’s School of Transportation, particularly those in the Automotive and Aerospace areas of study, who could see the potential to use XR in teaching complex topics like fluid dynamics in engines and the physics of air flow.
As a starting point we agreed to take an existing 3D model of a helicopter rotor assembly; the goal was to evaluate student perceptions of this as a tool for learning the physics of air flow related to helicopter rotor functioning. Our plan was to do a baseline usability assessment of using the 3D model in a 2D browser interface, work with CDM to ‘port’ the model to a Microsoft Hololens environment, and conduct a comparable usability assessment.
The Reality Kicks in
We came to many realizations as the project progressed.
First, we found that ‘porting’ an object wasn’t the hard part; building the interface to interact with the 3D model in a Hololens environment would require a lot of learning for the CDM project team.
Second, we realized that the ‘baseline’ assessment wouldn’t be useful to compare the learning outcomes, because we really weren’t comparing apples to apples: one was the 3D model in a 2D browser – where a student knows intuitively how to use mouse and keyboard to interact with the 3D object – while the other was a whole new experience involving a head-mounted display, new gestures and commands for working the device, and interacting with the 3D model in physical space. We called this the ‘Novelty Effect’ and we realized we had a lot more questions to explore around the learning curve of using emerging technology and how this would impact the experience.
We also started to gain insight into some of the potential challenges of moving an XR project from pilot to mainstream in the real world of higher education. Again, many more questions emerged:
- How would students access devices?
- Who would provide training?
- Who would maintain them and load updates and applications?
- What data would be collected from the devices?
- How would student privacy be protected?
- What are the implications for inclusivity and accessibility?
- How would this work in the context of the existing curriculum?
- Who will fund the application development, ongoing content development, and management of digital assets?
- How would this work in the context of existing physical classroom environments, where room configuration might need to change to create space to view and interact with virtual objects?
In Summary
At Spatial, we’re excited about the opportunities for using XR technology in education. We have the ability to totally reimagine the learning experience; however, we MUST put humans first and consider the whole system and context for introducing technology. And we MUST recognize and fully understand the impacts to the human connections, which are so much a part of the learning experience.
*XR encompasses augmented reality (where data is added to your field of view or perception) and virtual reality (where you become immersed in a virtual environment). Both typically require headset devices with gestures and/or hand controllers for interacting with the device and applications.
