Page 22 - Campus Technology, June 2017

COMPLETE GUIDE TO VIRTUAL REALITY
7 TIPS FOR GETTING STARTED WITH VR/AR
Instructional technologists from Duke University and North Carolina State offer their advice on introducing virtual and augmented reality on campus.
By David Raths
There’s no one-size-fits-all for virtual reality (VR). “That is how new and fast-changing it is,” explained Mike Cuales, associate director, creative & multimedia instructional technology support and development at North Carolina State University. “The technology is cool, but
how do you apply it effectively to the classroom?”
Cuales and his fellow instructional designers on NC State’s Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA) team are working to answer that question, and to help introduce the potential of VR and augmented reality
(AR) to the university.
“We want to democratize the development of VR for
education,” he said. “A lot of our early work has been one-on-one consulting with professors ... who have been champions in their departments, but every conversation is wildly different.” In one example, the team worked with Clint Stevenson, an assistant professor in the Department of
Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, to develop VR training sessions that allow students and professionals to interact with virtual representations of food manufacturing facilities to look for safety violations.
It’s a similar story at Duke University (NC), where the Duke Digital Initiative (DDI) supports faculty who have latched onto VR and AR as ways to give their students more immersive experiences. “With some new and emerging technology, faculty members don’t know how it might be applied until they get their hands on it,” noted DDI coordinator Elizabeth Evans. To help faculty get their feet wet, DDI provides funding for projects that involve new and emerging technologies and for individuals who want to go to technology conferences such as SXSWedu.
Campus Technology asked the instructional technologists from NC State and Duke for some tips on introducing VR and AR on campus.4
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CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY | June 2017
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