360° VR Science Labs

These six 360° VR science labs were created for chemistry and neurophysiology online courses offered through Florida Atlantic University's College of Science, as part of degree programs.

Responsibilities: Instructional Media Design, Project Management
Tools Used: Adobe Creative Cloud, CenarioVR, Recording Equipment
Year: 2021-2023

Experience "Limiting Reagent Study"

Process

I collaborated with various IDs, colleagues, and two SMEs to create six 360° VR science labs during my two years of experience at Florida Atlantic University's (FAU) Center for Online and Continuing Education. The labs were used in chemistry and neurophysiology online courses offered through FAU's College of Science, as part of degree programs. I was also responsible for training new hires on the 360° VR process.

As with all online courses I worked on while at FAU, the media development for this project took place in four phases: pre-production, production, post-production, and media build. Throughout the project, I maintained communication with the IDs, colleagues, and SMEs via email and meetings and updated the project management software, Wrike.

Pre-Production

First, during meetings with the IDs and SMEs, I created a storyboard for each lab in a Google Docs document. We used the storyboards to establish the flow, identify questions, answers, and points per question, and itemize assets including graphics, text for info cards, photos, and videos (360°, standard, and screen-recording). During or shortly after the meetings, I scheduled the recording sessions.

Production

The recording sessions for these 360° VR experiences were on-location so an hour before the sessions, I packed all necessary equipment. The day before the session I gathered scripts. The sessions generally took about three hours and the storyboards were referenced throughout, to ensure all assets were captured.

Post-Production

After recording, I prepared all assets for editing in CenarioVR, including processing the 360° footage, creating the lab title card in Adobe Illustrator, editing photos in Adobe Photoshop, and editing videos in Adobe Premiere Pro. Then, I created each lab in CenarioVR, using the storyboards to guide the editing process.

Editing in CenarioVR starts with adding scenes - the 360° photos and/or videos - and then adding objects and events to those scenes. Objects include hotspots, question cards, info cards, audio, images, and video. Hotspots trigger actions when the learner clicks on them, while events trigger actions at a specific time. CenarioVR also allows for conditional branching.

For example, the lab Separating a Mixture opens with the title card and a hotspot of a play button. The learner presses the play button and a standard video of the SME introducing the lab appears and plays, along with a hotspot of a close button. When the lab introduction video ends (or the learner presses the close button), the first question appears. Selecting an answer triggers an image of either a green check mark or a red x to appear for a few seconds, as feedback. The third and final question for the first part of this lab triggers a hotspot of a right arrow and an info card directing the learner to press the arrow to proceed to the first part of the experiment.

The final step in the post-production phase was review and revision. Each lab was user-tested in three rounds, first by my supervisor, then student assistants, and finally the SMEs.

Media Build

After I fixed any issues with flow, design, or total score, the labs and SCORM files were added to the Canvas development shells.

1/6

Experience "Separating a Mixture"

Takeaways

This was my first time creating 360° VR experiences. The first lab I created, Equipment and Calibration, was also the most difficult for two reasons: the storyboard and the complexity. Due to the difficulty, that lab provided the greatest learning opportunity.

The storyboarding meeting took place before the department started training me on the 360° VR process and, when I started editing that lab, I found the storyboard confusing. It lacked formatting and contained too much information about what the SME was doing in the footage, rather than how the learner would move through the experience. I wanted to avoid any future confusion and decrease editing time, so I improved the storyboarding format and system for the department. Since the SMEs also needed to be able to view and edit the storyboard, I opted to keep using a Google Docs document, but I created a template with a set layout, formatting, and color-coding. Additionally, during storyboard meetings I kept SMEs on track, gathering information about the flow and assets, instead of the science.

Of all six labs, Equipment and Calibration was the longest and most complex. Rather than moving linearly like the others, the first part can be explored in any order and parts one and three present the learner with the opportunity to replay certain standard videos. Both of these aspects require conditional branching which tends to be the trickiest part of editing in CenarioVR. For example, many objects in that lab have 11-21 actions, mostly with conditions, while in the six other labs most objects have 1-4 actions, mostly without conditions.

Editing that lab taught me to keep two things in mind when determining whether to incorporate a 360° VR experience into a course: the amount of time the learner would be spending in the 360° video environment and the total length of the experience.

There are three scenes/parts in Equipment and Calibration and all three have 360° photos as the base. In each part, the learner simply watches standard videos and answers questions. There are no 360° videos. In comparison, the six other labs primarily use 360° videos as the bases of scenes and put the learner in the SMEs shoes as they perform the experiments. That perspective is what makes for an engaging VR experience. So, instead of being a 360° VR experience, the standard videos from Equipment and Calibration could have been embedded in Canvas, to be viewed before completing the assignments and quizzes. Then, the learner would be able to scrub to and re-watch specific parts of the videos, something that isn't possible in a 360° VR experience.

Also, Equipment and Calibration ended up being very long. As with all course media, it's best practice to keep things short, chunking the knowledge delivery. At the very least, it could have been separated into three labs to prevent learner fatigue.

This technology is exciting and and I am eager to explore other applications, beyond chemistry and neurophysiology labs. In terms of higher education, perhaps a 360° VR experience on the subject of architecture, language, art, or environmental science could enhance an online course.

Overall, I really enjoy editing 360° VR experiences and I look forward to future opportunities to create more. If you have questions about this project, then please contact me.