![\"\"](\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Virtual-classroom-1.jpg\")
<\/a>An online 3D classroom will be used as part of Martin Danahay\u2019s Life Writing course during Brock University\u2019s Winter Term.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve essentially been able to create a server that allows students to come together within this classroom from anywhere in the world,\u201d said XpertVR lead programmer and fourth-year Brock GAME student Josh Egamino.<\/p>\n
The classroom has been loaded into VRChat, a platform where people can interact in various 3D worlds.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can shake hands, wave at each other, move around the room and even write on the whiteboard,\u201d Sitler, a fifth-year Business student, said of the new online Brock space. Moving forward, other objects can be added to the room to help users take on different tasks, such as conducting a science experiment, he said.<\/p>\n
While some students will use headsets to participate in the immersive experience, the room will also be accessible to those without the specialized equipment. With a computer and a microphone, anyone granted access can see and participate in the online discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see the classroom through the computer screen, you\u2019re just not as fully immersed as you would be with the headset on,\u201d Egamino said.<\/p>\n
The cost of VR technology has dropped significantly and within a few years is expected to be affordable for the average consumer, Sitler said, making its widescale use in an educational setting a real possibility.<\/p>\n
Danahay and the XpertVR team have been working together for about 18 months to bring the project to fruition and prepare the classroom for testing.<\/p>\n
Life Writing has previously been taught as a blended course, Danahay said, with classes rotated between in-person and online sessions hosted on Sakai, Brock\u2019s web-based learning management system.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents break out into groups and have discussions through text on Sakai,\u201d Danahay said. \u201cThrough the experiment, one group of students will meet with me each week in the 3D space, and instead of typing to each other as we\u2019ve been doing, we\u2019ll just talk.<\/p>\n
\u201cI enjoy fully online classes just as much as my students do, but the one thing I miss is that engagement from being in a room talking to people,\u201d he said. \u201cText doesn\u2019t convey the same range of emotions that voice does.\u201d<\/p>\n
XpertVR will use photos submitted by students signed up for the course to create their custom avatars for the initiative.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want each student\u2019s avatar to look as realistic as possible,\u201d Sitler said.<\/p>\n
At the end of the semester, Danahay will conduct qualitative interviews to see what, if anything, the 3D classroom added to the educational experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to know, is it worth it? Or is it more of a novelty?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While platforms do exist where people can come together to interact, Sitler said he\u2019s not aware of any rooms where post-secondary classes are gathering.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is pretty unique,\u201d Danahay added. \u201cWith this kind of project, we\u2019re getting closer and closer to having real-time online interaction and engagement for distance education.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is hopeful this project will inspire other faculty members across the University to make use of the virtual reality resources available through XpertVR.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019ve asked for is pretty minimal in terms of what these guys can do,\u201d he said, \u201cbut there are a lot of classes, particularly in the sciences, where this can really have an interesting impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sitler is confident the 3D classroom model can make waves in various disciplines, particularly in History and Geography.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, we\u2019re working with a basic classroom, but in the future, we can have the walls fall down so students are standing in Paris, or in Rome during the Roman Empire,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are so many potential applications.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Martin Danahay has led many classroom discussions in his career, but nothing quite like this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":59258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7484,7,3319,37,1,4,38,4665],"tags":[8091,263,8090,76,8087,3975,594,30,8089,8088,6822,2751,7603],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59260,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59257\/revisions\/59260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}