iLRN2021 7th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network

Online Library & Research Instruction with LibWizard Tutorials
Stephanie C. Gillespie
Pellissippi State Community College, United States of America

Since 2017, we’ve created LibWizard tutorials to address equitable library and research instruction opportunities for online students, especially asynchronous ones. Despite our initial hesitancy, we have been delighted to find other benefits to offering them to all students, such as:

• reach students whose instructors do not prefer guest lecturers or have no in-class time;
• strengthen faculty relationships by collaborating to create or update tutorials;
• Offer library and research instruction at students’ point of need;
• provide instruction to students who miss the in-class session;
• provide interactive lessons that include many types of materials;
• have a solution ready when we cannot fulfill an instruction request;
• increase our reach among students by 20-24% pre-Covid;
• assess student’s research skills and how they contribute to course success and retention;
• gather student feedback about which explanations or questions are unclear;
• help us create student-driven FAQs;
• collect quotes of student praise that can be used to market library services.

When the Covid pandemic hit, we were extremely grateful to have them ready to offer instructors while we considered solutions for live sessions online. In this session, we will discuss our experiences, lessons learned, and process for building, managing, and updating tutorials.

Drawing Equirectangular Perspectives for VR Panoramas with Eq A Sketch 360
António Bandeira Araújo
Universidade Aberta, Portugal
 
In this workshop we will explore the construction of immersive environments in equirectangular perspective using the Eq A Sketch 360 software. Eq A Sketch 360 is a serious toy for spherical perspective drawing. It has two innovative features: a sliding geodesic grid and an equirectangular snap-to ruler. These tools turn equirectangular drawing into a proper perspective, where all lines and vanishing points may be drawn by hand, to create immersive environments from either observation or imagination. This contrasts with previous methods of equirectangular drawing, that either avoided perspective altogether by drawing directly in VR view, or were limited to fixed grid methods with ad-hoc estimation of measurements. Eq A Sketch both forces and helps the user to learn spherical perspective. We will show how to draw by hand with perfect control of proportions and bearings, to make standalone designs or constructions that can be mixed with 360-degree photography.

A Journey into ihe NFT Space – A New Chapter in the Future of Art History
Diane Drubay, Trudy Elmore, Asya Shklyar, Micol Vertical, moderated by Wendy Sherman
Art Slave, United States of America
 
The art world has entered a new era that has been gathering steam since 2017, finally gaining the attention of the general public in 2021: the non-fungible token (or NFT). Beginning with the rise of NFT themed conversations on the Clubhouse app and culminating with the first ever Christie’s auction of an NFT artwork (by the digital artist Beeple) on Feb. 16, 2021. Now on April 15, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has become a publicly traded company on the stock exchange.
What does this all mean for the post-pandemic art world? This panel discussion with experts in digital art, computer technology, art curation, and technology-driven art museums will reveal the digital transformation taking place in our society and how it affects artists, art history, the art market, and even the possibilities for creation.