A cross-campus initiative funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning
This e-book gathers the experiences and learnings from a project funded under the Strategic Alignment of Teaching and Learning in Ireland (SATLE), an initiative funded by Irish National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (hereafter referred to as the ‘National Forum’). The aim of the project was to explore the potential of immersive technologies in a higher education context across a range of disciplines and professional services, to find out if these emerging technologies could enhance the student experience.
The project team included colleagues from across the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), which is a distributed campus geographically situated in four different counties in Ireland, namely Westmeath, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary. Academic staff from disciplines such as Hospitality, Tourism Management and Science took part in the project, as well as a member of the Library Team on the Athlone campus. The project was led by a senior academic from the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation and Development, a cross-campus centre which supports the research and development of academic practice.
The Next Steps Report from the National Forum advocates a reimagining of our learning environments to support “diverse approaches to teaching, learning and assessment” (2021, p.12). According to Radianti et al. (2020), while the use of virtual reality in higher education is promising, it is still quite experimental and focuses more on performance and usability than learning-oriented applications. However, to guard against the novelty effect (Wells et al., 2010) and to encourage students to engage in a meaningful way with the immersive technologies, the selection of one learning outcome for each of the academic domains provided a focus for the student participants. The resources chosen by the lecturer-researchers were relevant to the selected learning outcomes and could be of benefit to students for the assessment of these learning outcomes.
Catering for an increasingly diverse cohort of learners through immersive learning experiences.
The Next Steps report also recognises the need to cater for our “increasingly diverse learner profiles” (2021, p. 12). Immersive technologies can offer a multimodal approach to learning, engaging all the senses in the learning experience and cultivating a more inclusive learning environment. This focus on inclusiveness also led us to consider options for students who could not engage with virtual reality for example, and pushed the project team to provide alternative options to ensure all students could access the course material.
This e-book documents our journey from beginners to improvers in the use of virtual reality for higher education. We have learned a lot throughout the process and have since set up a VR Special Interest Group, to bring together colleagues across TUS who are using or are interested in using Virtual /Augmented or Mixed Reality in an educational context.
References
National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning. (2021) Next steps for teaching and learning: moving forward together. Available at: https://hub.teachingandlearning.ie/resource/next-steps-for-teaching-and-learning-moving-forward-together/ [Accessed 02 December 2022].
Radianti, J., Majchrzak, T. A., Fromm, J., & Wohlgenannt, I. (2020). A systematic review of immersive virtual reality applications for higher education: Design elements, lessons learned, and research agenda. Computers & Education, 147, 103778.
Wells, J. D., Campbell, D. E., Valacich, J. S., & Featherman, M. (2010). The effect of perceived novelty on the adoption of information technology innovations: a risk/reward perspective. Decision Sciences, 41(4), 813-843.
