As part of my VR course, I’ve been asked to perform a bit of a thought experiment. The outline of this work is:

Imagine you want to make a VR Education Application. This could be an exploration of the solar system, looking at fine grain detail of the human body, or teaching somebody how to program, just to name a few topics. For this experiment, pick any topic you would like to teach. And don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense in VR, we will worry about that part later. Just something you are passionate about.

The requirements include defining a statement of purpose, a persona for the target audience, answer a few short questions and post it to Medium. Given I have my own blog I figured I’d also post it here:

Statement of purpose

To demonstrate the Vet teaching hospital facilities at Massey University to prospective students.

Persona

Age: 17–18 years old

Occupation, if any: High school student

Name: Sam

A Quote: “I love working with and caring for animals”

2–3 sentences describing what motivates them:

They love working with and caring for animals. Learning in the best environment possible is important to be effective at their jobs. They want to become excellent, leaders in their field, to have the greatest impact. They are likely unsure of their specialised, but would have some idea of the options available. They already know they care for animals but are likely unsure of what the day to days of being a Vet are, but will be highly motivated to learn.

Their experience level with VR

May have had some small exposure to VR and education events or possibly in school. Given its still early days in the tech itself, it’s unlikely they are highly experienced.

Q and A

Q: How accessible would each VR platform be to your target student in terms of price? Take into account location, age, and income.

A: Accessibility of the various system is wildly different.

Mobile
Most high schoolers, of this age, have smartphones and the means to acquire a cardboard headset. Also, headsets could be supplied by the provider via the post, or at events.

High immersion
Much less accessible. The most likely source for high immersion would be the PlayStation VR and it’s unlikely prospects would think to use this given its context for gaming. The Vive and Oculus don't have enough presence yet to be meaningful for this use.

Q: How interactive does your lesson need to be? For example, do I need to pick things up or could I get away with just looking at objects?

A: The experience is purely to show off a facility and teaching capabilities, so only basic interaction is required. Select objects for more details or to play videos/animations.

Q: How realistic do your visuals need to be in order to teach? For example, could I use 2D images and videos in a 3D Environment or do you need high poly 3D models?

A: 2D images and video would be ample to communicate what needs to be communicated. If in future there was a need to train in the use of equipment etc then a more immersive VR platform would be required.

Q: Does my student need to feel like a participant in the experience or can they be a passive viewer? Could they be both?

A: To a certain extent they could be both. Selecting options (pick a path style) or just following a set path. Having the option is likely a good idea given repeat users are likely to have something specific to see rather than the whole walkthrough. So it would be good to be able to skip to the parts they are most interested in.

Q: Given the answers above, what are potential platforms you could use for your experience?

A: Given the limited access to high-end VR hardware, mobile VR (aka cardboard/daydream/gearvr) are likely the best targets. It’s fair to say highly immersive VR would be richer, but given it would reach far fewer people it’s not really relevant for outreach activities like this. The fact the content could also be easily reused and delivered via the web is also a plus for mobile.

Future technologies

Future tech – Microsoft Research: NormalTouch and TextureTouch

A few questions to consider with regards to future technologies:

Q: How would Augmented Reality better help teach your experience?

A: In this case, it likely wouldn't be. Given we are attempting to educate student prospects on what the facilities are actually like at the University recreating that experience is better suited to VR. Augmented reality could potentially be used differently if you wanted to demo a particular part of the experience, such as show a horse on a large animal MRI machine, at an event. This could give prospects a real sense of scale relative to things around them.

Q: How could eye tracking help you better tailor your experience to your students?

A: Using eye tracking to understand the users focus within an experience could enhance our ability to provide depth of field. Making the experience more natural for your eyes. We could also use I tracking to monitor what users are looking at and use this information to improve the experience over time.

Q: How would better Haptics better teach your experience?

A: Introducing a tactile feel to the animals in the environment could provide a great sense of immersion and connection with the animals. The more real it seems the more convincing it is as a sales tool.

Q: How important is graphical fidelity to your experience?

A: Given the experience is likely relatively short users are unlikely to experience eye strain. Also, we are only attempting to highlight the environment the student will be in a demo the sophistication of the facilities. Given this is the case, it's not completely necessary for the graphic fidelity to be top of the line. Having said that, improved displays that take advantage of light field technologies would vastly improve player comfort and as a result will be essential and common place in the future.

Q: How critical is it that your target student receives this training within the next two years?

A: As the university expands internationally it's of increasing value to demonstrate to international prospects what facilities are on offer without them having the expense of physically travelling to New Zealand to see them first hand. Using VR allows them to get a sense of the place, helping them make more informed decisions.