iLRN2021 7th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network

Posters

Integrated Reading Assistance in an Immersive Environment
Kojiro Yano
Osaka Institute of Technology, Japan

Relationship between Perceptions and Experiences on the Performance of Students in a Serious Game
Chioma Udeozor
Newcastle University, United Kingdom
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Virtual Learning for Virtual Times across the SUNY System
Roberta Sullivan(1), Alyssa Indelicato(2), Eileen O'Connor(3), Nicole Simon(5), Cynthia Tysick(6)
1: University at Buffalo, United States of America; 2: SUNY Upstate Medical University, United States of America; 3: Empire State College, United States of America; 5: Nassau Community College, United States of America; 6: University at Buffalo, United States of America
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Developing a Portfolio of Tools for Teaching Digital Logic
Harry Keith Edwards
University of Hawaii at Hilo, United States of America
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Game Design Informed by Learning Progressions for Science Practices
Shari Metcalf(1), Amanda Sommi(1), Sima Haddadin(1), Jennifer Scianna(2), David Gagnon(2)
1: Harvard University; 2: University of Wisconsin

Design and Evaluation of Mixed Reality Based Cybersecurity Curriculum for Middle School Students
Yan-Ming Chiou, Chrystalla Mouza, Teomara Rutherford, Chien-Chung Shen
University of Delaware, United States of America

Plant Cell Biology Education Using Advanced 3D Technologies for K-12 Students
Sayuri Tanabashi
The University of Tokyo, Japan

Virtual Geoscience Field Trip for Improved Physical Accessibility and Spatio-Temporal Reasoning
Matthew Donnelly(1), Adaobi Nebuwa(2), Jaclyn Baughman(1), Stacy Doore(2)
1: Bowdoin College, United States of America; 2: Colby College, United States of America
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Design Method of a Real-time Monitoring System for ICT Evaluation Process in Education Based on CesiumJS 3D Visualization
Chen Wu(1), Meng Chen(1), Di Wu(1), Jiman Ma(1), Jian Xu(1), Binbin Ma(2)
1: Central China Normal University, China, People's Republic of China; 2: South-Central University for Nationalities, China, People's Republic of China
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Language, Culture, and Heritage: The VR experience The Book of Distance and teaching the Family Folklore Project
Charles Willam MacQuarrie, Rachel Rebecca Tatro-Duarte
California State University Bakersfield, United States of America

Specific Heat of Water Experiment: Augmented Reality Chemistry Lab
Ryan Wirjadi, Alex Vuong, Frank Liu, Robert LiKamWa
Arizona State University, United States of America
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Building WaterWays: Investigating AR for Environmental Education
Corinne Brenner, Jessica Ochoa Hendrix, Mande Holford
Killer Snails, United States of America

Watershed Explorers: Designing a Virtual Reality Game to Promote Local Watershed Literacy
Robson Araujo-Junior(1), Alec Bodzin(1), Thomas Hammond(1), David Anastasio(1), Beigie Lam(1), Jeremy Mack(1), Daphne Mayer(2), Robert Neitz(3), Kathryn Semmens(4), Chad Schwartz(5), Jason Slipp(1)
1: Lehigh University, United States of America; 2: Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor National Canal Museum, United States of America; 3: Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center, United States of America; 4: Nurture Nature Center, United States of America; 5: Lehigh Gap Nature Center, United States of America
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Improve Spatial Learning by Chunking Navigation Instructions in Mixed Reality
Bing Liu(1), Zhicheng Zhan(2)
1: Technical University of Munich, Germany; 2: Ghent University, Belgium

Mathstation: A Grade School Math Supplement Serious Game
Jonathan Borowski, David Plecher
TU Munich, Germany

AR-supported Collaborative Game for Understanding Complex Systems
Man Su
Arizona State University, United States of America

Presentations

COVIDCampus Game: Making Safer Choices
Mina C. Johnson-Glenberg(1), Mehmet Kosa(2), Don Balanzat(2), Ricardo Nieland Zavala(2), Xavier Apostal(2), Jude Rayan(2), Hector Taylor(2), Hannah Bartolomea(2), Kapadia Anoosh(2)
1: Arizona State University and Embodied Games, United States of America; 2: Arizona State University, Tempe, United States of America
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This article highlights several game design choices made during the creation of a browser-based game on mitigation strategies for Covid-19. Additionally, it presents a within group comparison of learning gains and self-reported behavioral changes after playing the game. Results show that the short COVIDCampus game has the potential to change college-age players’ Covid-19 related mitigation behaviors and it significantly increased players’ confidence in asking important health-related questions (Cohen’s d = .27). Some implications are discussed.

A Medical Ontology Informed, User Experience Taxonomy To Support Co-creative Workflows for Authoring Mixed Reality Medical Education Spaces.
Panagiotis E. Antoniou(1), Evaggelos Chondrokostas(2), Charalampos Bratsas(2,3), Panagiotis Filippidis(2), Panagiotis Bamidis(1)
1: Medical Physics Lab, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece; 2: Open Knowledge Foundation Greece; 3: Mathematics Dept, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
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Curriculum size constantly challenges healthcare education and training. Technology enhanced, immersive educational content like Virtual, Augmented, or Mixed Reality (VR/AR/MR collectively XR) constantly aims to facilitate knowledge retention and skills acquisition in the healthcare sector. Core challenge in this effort is the increasing costs, in time and resources, required for designing and developing XR immersive educational content. An approach to address this challenge is participatory design methods. Co-creation approaches distribute the burden of content development amongst the educators’ community and facilitate decentralized bottoms-up content creation. This approach requires data modeling approaches that facilitate digital asset discoverability, reusability and consumption through visual authoring tools. This work describes the conceptualization and implementation of a UX taxonomy for annotating immersive AR/VR/MR content at the asset level for maximum repurposing capacity. A brainstorming session between educational and technology experts was conducted and conceptual details of the terms of the taxonomy were described. The Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) vocabulary was utilized to organize this devised taxonomy and link it with existing medical ontology terms, formulating an RDF endpoint of the nominated ENTICE ontology. This ontology was able to link medical terms with UX and educational properties in a data structure that can annotate and contextually encapsulate any XR digital asset. An example such term is described and presented as proof of application. The semantic modelling implemented in this work is directly applicable to a previously proposed visual data structure and subsequent authoring environment that could facilitate XR resource design and authoring from non-technical experts.

Presentations

Modeling Teacher Use of Virtual Reality Simulations in Nursing Education Using Epistemic Network Analysis
Mamta Shah(1), Amanda L Siebert-Evenstone(2), Brendan R Eagan(2), Roxanne Holthaus(1)
1: Elsevier; 2: University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Simulations are widely adopted in undergraduate nursing education because they offer low-risk, experiential ways to expose pre-licensure students to clinical environments, and to situate the development of requisite knowledge and skills for patient care. Virtual reality (VR) simulations present novel opportunities for clinical education; as such, research in this area is burgeoning around questions related to perception, adoption, and outcomes. In this paper, we demonstrate the application of epistemic network analysis, a quantitative ethnography technique, to model how one nursing educator facilitated clinical judgment and nurtured quality and safety education for nurses’ competencies through the use of Simulation Learning System with Virtual Reality (SLS with VR). We modeled the discourse obtained from three simulation sessions in October and November 2020, all involving a fundamental scenario requiring second-year nursing students to practice basic assessment and care management. Our work aims to advance research in medical and health education, particularly nursing education, using immersive learning environments by way of applying theory-backed learning analytic techniques.


CureQuest: A Digital Game for New Drug Discovery
Ben Chang, Shawn Lawson, Kathleen Ruiz, Mei Si
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, United States of America
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CureQuest is an educational adventure game about Clinical Translational Therapeutics, the process of discovery and development of new medical treatments, drugs, devices, and therapies. The game is being developed through a collaboration between faculty and students from a game design program and those from a medical school, with the goal of raising awareness and improving collaboration in the "bench to bedside" process. CureQuest aims to address this gap, first with medical students and ultimately for a general audience, with a game that instills wonder and inspires players with the challenges of drug discovery. In addition to the impact of the game when completed, the development process itself presents a novel case study in integrating the interdisciplinary fields of game development and “team science”. We present the current version of the game in development; the unique design challenges presented by the project; and the evolution of our collaborative process.

Presentations

Engagement in In-Game Questionnaires - Perspectives from Users and Experts
Alexander Steinmaurer, Martin Sackl, Christian Gütl
Graz University of Technology, Austria
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Questionnaires are important instruments to gather information from people in a wide range of application scenarios, such as analyzing the responses for evaluations, collecting preferences, or retrieving self-estimations in learning settings. However, based on the setting and design of a questionnaire participating can be boring or frustrating and consequently have a negative impact on results or disengage users. Literature reports negative findings in immersive simulations and learning games, where assessment and questionnaires are provided outside the learning experience. In this paper, we introduce an approach to integrate questionnaires into a game environment. Thereby, we want to provide learners with an engaging way to answer questions. To encourage them in participating, they receive rewards for completing questions. We performed two evaluations, an A/B study with 22 participants and an evaluation with 14 experts in subject-related fields. We could show that learners are more engaged in the in-game questionnaire and integrated questions make them more likely to respond. We could also identify strategies to obtain more reliable responses such as asking questions right after a task or including gamification elements. Findings can contribute to design more engaging applications or learning environments where evaluation and feedback have significance for both educators and learners.

Presentations
 
Immersive Technology in the Public School Classroom: When a Class Meets
Samuel Williams(1), Rowena Enatsky(2), Holly Gillcash(2), James Murphy(2), Denis Gracanin(1)
1: Virginia Tech, United States of America; 2: CLS STEM+, United States of America
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Recent research suggests that students feel disconnected in distance educational environments. There is an immediate and sustained need for innovative approaches that provide personalized and interactive instruction, digital equity, and scale-up remote teaching. Shared, collaborative virtual spaces, such as Mozilla Hubs, can provide new learning modalities for educators and students, especially during the pandemic. We describe our experience with using Mozilla Hubs in formal and informal educational settings. We conducted several user studies to collect qualitative feedback from the participants. These studies include an educator workshop, a girl scout meeting, and a class gathering. The findings provide an insight how practical, useful, and entertaining such virtual spaces are to the participants.
 
 
Project Learn&Play: Piloting A Game-based Instruction For Students In Comparison To An Engineering Lecture
Anna Seidel, Franziska Weidle, Claudia Börner
Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, Germany
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Challenges stemming from change processes such as the climate crisis are ubiquitous. To address these challenges, highly skilled specialists are needed. However, engineering courses show a decrease in enrolment numbers and high drop-out rates. Furthermore, engineering students represent a rather homogeneous group. Since diverse groups are more innovative and effective in addressing future problems, it is desirable to increase not only the quantity but also the diversity of enrolments. Therefore, the project x utilises a game-based instruction to raise interest in engineering. To examine the effects of the game as well as differences in contrast to conventional instructions, a study in a within-subject-design was conducted. Regarding motivational variables, the self-concept of ability and cognition, only a main effect of cognition and an interaction effect for cognition and gender could be detected. Furthermore, recorded gameplay sessions gave useful insights into the engagement process as well as influential effects.

Synapse VR: Catalyzing Collaboration through Immersive Learning
Cat Flynn, Seth Corrigan, Faby Gagne
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Please pardon our dust as we replaced this one Sched session with 29 individual sessions.  Please visit the booths in the Expo Hall!

Student Engagement with Reduced Bias in a Virtual Classroom Environment
Esther Brandon(1), Raphael Freiwirth(2,3)
1: Brandeis University, United States of America; 2: Miramar College, United States of America; 3: The Commons XR, United States of America
 
To Transcend is critical, but the path must contain a mechanism to both combat dis-engagement and bias in a classroom environment. Why bias and engagement issues as one, because one can create an issue with the other. Not all engagement issues are bias-related, but many are. And not all bias issues may create dis-engagement, but certainly, there are many studies that seem to point that it can. Why not use tools in the classroom that can improve engagement and reduce both explicit and implicit bias? Virtual reality is one such tool if used correctly. Join us to explore the possibilities of a classroom environment that might help out the next generation of students to transcend the norms of today!