Immersive technology devices and field work: Oculus Rift

Who is your project team? Scott Turner and Naomi Holmes, School of Science and Technology, Adel Gordon, Learning Technology- all University of Northampton

How much funding did you receive? £1,200 Poster available at: http://slidesha.re/1kvvUuX or http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1054675 What is your project? The aim was to investigate the potential use and the student experiences of using virtual reality (Oculus Rift) devices for field trips. Virtual reality field trips have been used by a number of HE institutions for a number of reasons: To give students the opportunity to prepare for a ‘real-life’ field trip (risk assessments, kit selection, project preparation etc) To allow students to reflect on a recent field trip To provide an additional field trip experience without incurring extra costs for the student or institution To improve accessibility to field work experiences To allow distance learning students to participate in field work Computer-based (virtual reality) field trips have in the past been perceived negatively by students, often due to a poor representation of reality. Currently these field trips take place in 3D environments on a 2D computer screen. There has been an emphasis on enhancing the realism of these virtual field trips. The recent release of Oculus Rift, a relatively low-cost virtual-reality headset which tracks the user’s head movements, allowing users to ‘walk through’ a virtual landscape immersively, offers an opportunity to further improve the virtual reality field trip experience. Thirteen Environmental and Geographical Sciences student volunteers tested the Oculus Rift. The students used the Oculus Tuscany Demo software to work around a landscape, spending between 10 and 30 minutes in the landscape. No students had used an Oculus Rift previously. After using the devices they fed back through a questionnaire their views on its use from a learner's perspective. Do you have any outcomes you can report? From the questionnaires: The students all saw the virtual reality as beneficial only if used alongside or in addition to actual field trip experiences Motion sickness was a common problem of using the devices and so limits the time it can be used Overall the response was positive for the testers Other applications such as studying plant structure, looking at past environments and cell structure were suggested by the students The work was been disseminated. The results were discussed and participants had a chance to try the Oculus Rifts in a workshop at the recent Northampton Learning and Teaching Conference - Northampton 2018: Planning, Designing and Delivering Student Success. For more details contact: scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk

awarding winning mobile for fieldwork

The now highly commended case study (see figure) of colloborative work by Adel Gordon and Janet Jackson, University of Northampton, Julie Usher, Blackboard (previously University of Northampton) in using mobile technologies in Fieldwork for Environmental Sciences  was presented on 23rd January 2014 at 

Effective use of mobile technologies to enhance learning, teaching and assessment, 

,

Context take from the paper:

"The culture, practice and pedagogy of academic disciplines such as geography and environmental sciences are based around in the field activities as well as traditional learning in face to face, online and laboratory scenarios. Downward et al (2008) have argued that environmental scientists are uniquely positioned to pilot mobile technologies, because they work across so many different contexts.

figure 1

Figure 1 depicts the varied contexts in which environmental students are now expected to work. Within each of these disciplinary contexts learners should have access to all the resources they need, as well as the ability to capture, reflect on, develop and extend their ideas into other contexts.

As Kukulska-Hulme et al (2007) note, mobile learning may offer a solution to this problem, by encouraging students to use “portable tools that support observations, interactions, conversations and reflections, within and across various contexts of use...” (p.53).

With this in mind we wanted to find a solution that could facilitate students’ learning both within and across these contexts."

To read more, read the full paper at Good Practice Guide "Mobile learning:How mobile technologies can enhance the learning experience" page 2  published by UCISA.

Reference
Kukulska-Hulme, A, Traxler, J, and Pettit, J, (2007). Designed and user generated activity in the mobile age. Journal of Learning Design, 2(1), pp 52–65.

Other related links:

• Virtual Reality in Teaching.
• Update for the Innovation Panel
• Update: Learning across contexts

Update from the Innovation Fund Panel

Taken from the Raising the Bar Newsletter

The Innovation Fund Panel, comprising Deborah Mattock as Chair, Angie Bartoli (Health), Katie Jones (Institute of Health and Wellbeing), Olinga Taeed (NBS) and Terry Tudor (Science and Technology) met for the first time last week and the funding of two projects was agreed.   These were: • MApping: integrating mobile technology into geography fieldwork learning and teaching (lead: Naomi Holmes); • To use immersive technology devices to prepare for field work (lead: Scott Turner). Congratulations to Naomi and Scott on being the first recipients of the Fund. The Panel received a wide range of project proposals some of which have been deferred for consideration at a later meeting.  In considering the bids, the Panel was particularly pleased to receive bids from individuals or groups who demonstrated collaborative working, either between Schools, between subject areas within Schools, or between Schools and Professional Services.  Projects which demonstrated innovation, either through the use of technology or a different way of working, were also particularly welcomed.  The next meeting of the Panel will be taking place on Thursday 14 November and staff are invited to submit their bids to innovationfund@northampton.ac.uk by Wednesday 6 November 2013.