Contributors
Faculty
Hurriyet Ok, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor of Computer Science
Science & Engineering Hall
The George Washington University
Team Members
Leah Sims
Graphic Designer and Animator
Center for Teaching Excellence
The George Washington University
Caitlin Savoldelli
Accessibility Instructional Designer
Center for Teaching Excellence
The George Washington University
GW-Adobe Science Education Initiative Program Leads
Jason Torres, Ed.D.
Director, Digital Learning
Center for Teaching Excellence
The George Washington University
Sylvain Guiriec, Ph.D.
Physics Innovation Lab
Assistant Professor of Physics
Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Physics
The George Washington University
Project information
Audience
The intended audience for this lesson is undergraduate and graduate computer science and engineering students.
Learning objectives
- Design and develop immersive content to teach a scientific concept in a Virtual Reality (VR) experience.
- Articulate goals for end users/learners, their tasks in the app, and how you want users to feel in the environment. As a product of analyzing these goals, articulate why you chose to make particular design decisions.
- Practice a combination of skills as you develop your VR application (e.g., computer graphics design, creating 3D UI/UX, user interaction, programming).
- Share knowledge and unique expertise to collaborate with classmates in designing and developing VR content.
- Assess a learning experience articulated through VR.
- Analyze needs for a learner that coincide with needs for a VR application.
- Conceptualize vision for a learning-centered VR application.
Purpose
The purpose of the VR Project is taking the technical principles we’ve learned and put them into application. You will be building a VR application that is designed to teach a scientific concept.
In the process of building this technically, you will also give thought to your purpose for making specific design choices in your application according to the subject matter and audience you are targeting. Communicating your design and your process and its alignment to overall goals is an essential skill to build that you can apply beyond this class into your next one, and into a future in academia or the workforce.
Background
Elements of learning design
Designing a learning experience ties into some of the key principles of VR design like immersion and presence.
- Immersion is the result of emulating the sensory input that your body receives (visual, auditory, motor, and so on). This can be explained technically.
- Presence is the visceral feeling that you get being transported there –a deep emotional or intuitive feeling.
Note: Immersion is the science of VR and presence is the art.
Authentic learning experiences are those that place the learner in real or close-to-real contexts which enable the learners to participate actively in applying their knowledge. In designing a learning experience in VR, a learner will make choices that will determine to what extent the learner is immersed and how realistic the environment is, and how closely it will mirror the real context where this knowledge could be applied.
General assignment
Lesson activity 1: Design proposal
Audience
- Who is doing the learning?
- What do they already know?
- What might motivate them?
Objectives
- What do you want them to achieve?
- What is manageable for them to achieve in the amount of time/space you have?
Engagement
- How can we make learning fun?
- How does it tie into real-world relevance?
- How can we make the learning as active as possible?
Assessment
- How do we as the teacher/learning designer know the learner achieved the objective (or not)?
- How does the learner know that they achieved the objective?
Lesson activity 2: Demonstration and criteria for the project
- An activity involving Six Degrees of Freedom (6DOF).
- Movement of the user (or avatar) via locomotion (e.g. teleportation).
- Spatial audio to deepen the intuitive nature of interactions (e.g. sound effects).
- Haptic feedback through hand controllers (e.g. buzzing, rumbling).
- Grab an object or make a fist using the Grip button (on the side of the controller).
This application is designed to replicate a realistic, science-forward environment – a science classroom – to help the learner click into the “scientist mindset” and envision themselves as a working scientist. For a different target learner, you may choose to design a more abstract, game-like environment to engage students who don’t like science as much. Starting the design process thinking about the fundamental technical aspects one needs to achieve plus the learning need analysis in mind will help learners make the most engaging, immersive experience because you will have customized it to what works best for the learner and the goal. It will also make design easier because you can narrow down to the options that work best early in the process.
Lesson activity 3: In-class discussion
Now that we’ve reviewed the application, let’s discuss what you saw.
- What are supports built into this application for the learner?
- What additional support do you see that could help the process?
- How could this application be made more advanced for a higher-level learner?
- How could the application be simplified for a younger audience?
- As you viewed the demo, what are the initial questions or concerns you have for your own project?
Project tasks
Task 1: Submit VR project proposal document: [Due date]
Make a copy of the VR Project Proposal document in Blackboard - word document or Google document. Fill it out with your proposed project details.
- Choose a scientific field and project title.
- Option 1: Teach a scientific concept (e.g. building molecules)
- Option 2: Showcase a scientific experiment (e.g. non-Newtonian fluids)
- Write your pitch
- What is your end goal for users?
- How do you want them to feel in the VR environment?
- Write out the basics of your app.
- The VR interactions must include:
- An activity involving Six Degrees of Freedom (6DOF).
- Movement of the user (or avatar) via locomotion (e.g. teleportation).
- Spatial audio to deepen the intuitive nature of interactions (e.g. sound effects).
- Haptic feedback through hand controllers (e.g. buzzing, rumbling).
- Grab an object or make a fist using the Grip button (on the side of the controller).
- The UI/UX design must include:
- Include in-app tutorials to explain the objective and how to use controllers for interaction and navigation, at the beginning of the VR experience.
- Follow the effective VR Application Design Criteria outlined in Table 1.
- Implement the ability to Exit the VR app or to go back and Restart again, gracefully (i.e., without force quit).
- The VR interactions must include:
Task 2: VR project development
Learners will develop their VR App over a number of lab sessions. During these times learners will work alongside your classmates and share knowledge and unique expertise.
- Review Unity VR Development Platform.
- Complete Self-Study Unity VR Tutorials.
- Design and develop your app following the VR Application Design Criteria.
Task 3: Status update: [Due date]
Identify the features of your VR app and give an update on what’s been completed and what is still in progress.
- Include screenshots and video.
- Explain your design and development progress thus far.
Task 4: VR project release, presentation and report: [Due date]
- APK file to run on Meta Quest 1/2.
- User Guideline in PDF: Step by step instructions about how to install and use the app and enjoy the experience, with screenshots or images helping users in every step.
- Known issues, bugs, and workarounds if there are any.
- 2 minutes promo video (MP4 or MOV formats).
Task 5: Presentation
In class, you will give a five-minute introduction to your VR Application and demonstrate its key features:
- AI capabilities: Navigation features, guiding audio/sound effects, text, etc.
- Scoreboard
- An activity involving 6 Degrees of Freedom (6DOF)
- Locomotion (e.g. via teleportation)
- Explain what you have done to optimize the user experience for VR app (referring to effective VR application design factors).
- Talk about lessons learned and challenges
Your classmates and I will then ask you questions as well.
Task 6: Report
5-8 pages
- Introduction: Brief explanation of your VR app, development environment, and device.
- VR application design: What are the key design considerations used to build the VR app?
- Integration: Detailed build process, including screenshots. Explain all the third-party software tools and assets used, with proper references, web links.
- User experience: What you have done to optimize the user experience for VR app (referring to effective VR application design factors).
- User guideline: Step by step instructions about how to install and use the app and enjoy the experience, with screenshots or images helping users in every step.
- Conclusions: Considering initial design goals, what worked, what needs improvement, what did not work?
- Suggestions for further improvements: Their implementation is outside the scope of this class project.
- Appendix I: Lessons Learned - your personal journey throughout this project (1 page)
- Appendix 2: Feedback to the instructor (½ page)
Upload your report in PDF format onto Blackboard with file naming convention: <your-name>-<course-id>-"VR Project"-<version or date> or a notation that identifies you and differentiates it if you made changes and resubmitted again. Example: Hurriyet-CSCI 4454-VR Project-20230405.pdf
Task 7: Peer evaluations: [Due date]
2-3 pages
- Provide your evaluation of three classmates VR design based on first person experience: What was your user experience for these VR apps, referring to effective VR application design factors?
- Include screenshots from your experience to reinforce the points you made.
- Upload your evaluations in PDF format onto Blackboard with the file naming convention: "VR Project Reviews by "<your-name><date>”.pdf” Example: VR Project Reviews by Hurriyet Ok 20230405.pdf
Project criteria
Most important factors in successful VR application design (Source: Unreal® Engine VR Cookbook: Developing Virtual Reality with UE4 by Mitch McCaffrey).
Dos and Don'ts
- Avoid screen space effects when you can
- Aim for a frame rate slightly higher than the target display frame rate
- Consider lowering the rendered resolution if the frame rate needs to be increased
- The player’s head motions should be in control of the camera at all times. Avoid using cinematic cameras, and try to use asynchronous loading in menus or during level loads. Avoid camera shake and other effects that move the camera without the user’s control
- Do not override the field of view of the player’s view
- Avoid accelerations
Project output
Defined success
A crucial aspect of the exercise is empowering learners to justify their design decisions, ensuring that the application's features align with the subject matter and target audience effectively as well as critique other student projects through a peer review process. Moreover, the project serves as a valuable platform for learners to enhance their proficiency and creativity in digital art and immersive storytelling techniques.
