VR project for 2018-19

Looking forward to the start of the new academic year, I am looking toward some particular innovation trials that I can run with regard to technology enhanced learning and so far I have settled on three that I am really looking forward to running

The first one that I am going to talk about is Google Expeditions. It was back in August 2016 that I put a virtual lab in place for the BSc Biomedical team. At the time Biomed were experiencing difficulties in arranging lab visits for students and so they requested the build which was constructed and put in place for them at one of our Opensim islands. 

Since then and following a visit from Rebox VR a Google Expedition’s partner recently, I discovered that among the collection of VR Career Expeditions there was a bio lab.  If you have yet to explore these tours then I can really recommend having look, though we shall be acquiring a set of RedboxVR headsets, it is more than possible to make use of compatible smartphones. The tour takes the form of a 360 degree set of images The teacher leads the group by simply marking items of interests on the their leader screen that will be linked to explanation text, you however have more than simply text. Students will on their screens see an arrow directing them to the marker that they follow to access the information. I must say that image quality and smooth scrolling on a smartphone not even using WiFi was impressive. I had a recent meeting with the course leader and am pleased to say that the demo was met with real enthusiasm. 

I shall be posting on our use of this and other expeditions that I have planned so do stay in touch if you would like to see how we get on and I shall also be posting on my other two projects for 2018-19 soon.