Media releases

• Brock University course using virtual reality to enhance online learning experience

  Friday, February 04, 2022 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 3 February 2022 – R0011

  Martin Danahay is taking his online teaching approach to a new level. 

  The Brock University Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature is hosting one of his Winter Term courses in a 3D classroom using virtual reality (VR) technology.

  The class, WRDS/IASC/GAME 3P15 Writing for New Media, is part of Danahay’s ongoing work to introduce VR components into teaching.

  In 2018, he received a Chancellor’s Chair for Teaching Excellence award, which provided him funding to virtually bring together five students for a class using Oculus Quest headsets.

  That concept was further expanded when the Writing for New Media course began last month. All 20 students have headsets and class is conducted entirely in 3D spaces.

  A Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Engage grant received by Danahay with collaborator Tim Dun, Associate Professor of Communication, Popular Culture and Film, allowed the headsets to be purchased and for local software company XpertVR to be hired as part of the project.

  Danahay worked with XpertVR to create a realistic classroom and avatars. Students are able to speak and move around the 3D space using avatars as a ‘virtual body.’

  “The students have really liked it,” Danahay says of the VR environment. “They preferred meeting in 3D to videoconferencing. They had a much stronger sense of connection to the people they were talking to, even though they were communicating through avatars.”

  As the course got underway, students began to play around with their avatars, representing themselves as various objects, such as a stick of butter and characters from film, Danahay says.

  “Students really liked the playful aspect of it, and it didn’t interfere with their interactions or learning,” he says.

  XpertVR went on to develop three different virtual reality settings for the class, including the surface of Mars, a boardroom and a play space.

  Third-year Interactive Arts and Science student Maddy Kwan is a research assistant for Danahay and is helping students with technical aspects of using VR during the course.

  “It’s very interesting to see how far the technology has come,” she says. “This is a glimpse of what the future could look like and how virtual reality can be used in a practical setting.”

  The ongoing work also includes a research component. Working with Dun, Danahay will have students complete surveys around their sense of engagement in the VR space.

  “I usually run a conversation with students in a classroom, and the atmosphere of the classroom is very important to make students feel comfortable and express their ideas,” Danahay says. “3D is the future of a lot of interactions in virtual reality, so I’m interested in which factors help us create a sense of engagement and community for education.”

   

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock surveying Ontario horticultural sector on sustainable production research

  Wednesday, February 02, 2022 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 2 February 2022 – R0010

  There’s great research on how to make the horticulture industry more environmentally friendly, but that knowledge may not be reaching farmers, producers, extension specialists and others in the field, says a Brock University agricultural researcher.

  To find out more, Niagara Community Observatory Research Fellow Amy Lemay is sending out surveys to three groups of practitioners asking them how they share, access and use scientific research to adopt sustainable management practices, or ‘best management practices’ (BMP), in Ontario’s horticultural industry.

  “With increasing pressure on the agriculture sector to be sustainable, it’s crucial for farmers to have access to information that will help them make decisions on how to adopt best management practices,” says Lemay, who is also an Adjunct Professor in Brock’s Environmental Sustainability Research Centre and Fellow in the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute.

  The survey for horticultural farmers will list around 25 best management practices dealing with soil quality, irrigation, pesticide use, erosion control, cover crops, and other ecological, social and economic aspects of their work.

  That survey will ask farmers which practices they’ve adopted and what led to their decisions, says Lemay.

  “What are the preferred ways for farmers to find out about research and information on best management practices?” she says. “What are the sources of their information? How useful do they find this information?”

  Another survey group is stakeholders, who Lemay calls “intermediaries” or knowledge brokers such as industry associations, extension specialists, conservation authorities, government bodies, and seed, fertilizer and chemical suppliers.

  “We’re asking them how often they use different activities like publishing in a farm magazine, writing blogs, posting information on websites, producing podcasts, writing fact sheets, speaking at conferences and others to share and disseminate research results,” she says.

  The third survey is aimed at researchers, who number around 400 scientists and academics across Canada doing research to develop, test and validate BMPs.

  That survey will glean how researchers share their results with the wider horticultural community, or end users, and will ask if and how farmers, extension workers and other end users helped to design the research in the early stages.

  Farmers, practitioners and researchers in the horticultural sector wanting to fill out the surveys can access them in the links provided above or can contact Lemay at mlemay@brocku.ca

  Lemay and her team will also be in Booth 116 at the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Convention, to be held at the Scotia Bank Convention Centre in Niagara Falls Wednesday, Feb. 23 and Thursday, Feb. 24. Attendees can fill out surveys at the booth.

  The surveys are part of a larger research project examining the role of knowledge mobilization in the adoption of best management practices in Ontario’s horticultural industry.

  The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) is supporting this work with a $115,000 grant.

  Also supporting the research is a highly competitive Grants4Ag grant that Bayer Crop Science awarded Lemay last month. Lemay was one of 21 award recipients worldwide out of a pool of more than 350 submissions.

  The research team, headed by Professor of Political Science Charles Conteh, aims to identify and evaluate the barriers to knowledge mobilization that impede the adoption of best management practices in Ontario’s horticultural sector and to identify strategies and approaches for overcoming those barriers.

  The surveys will run until Thursday, March 31. After that, focus groups will use the survey results to discuss the way forward for developing effective ways of sharing and accessing sustainable horticulture research that support the adoption of best management practices.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews: 

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca or 905-347-1970 

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  Categories: Media releases