VRIE Virtual Reality Identity Explorer

Inspiration

VR has been called an empathy engine, capable of instilling the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. We are interested in just how that happens and can be intentionally designed into VR experiences for learning.

We want to move beyond the frustrated discussions about the constraints of current VR experiences and focus on how we can use the affordances of mixed reality technologies for learning. We are intrigued by what VR can do to help us to create opportunities for learners to engage with situated narratives involving avatars and environments different from their own. We believe strongly in the potential of simulated experiences to change perspective and support opportunities for learning.

What it does

Virtual Reality Identity Explorer | VRIE is a guided experience into the world of another. We use the affordances of VR narratives to engage participants in scaffolded interactions in an unfamiliar space. In this prototype phase, the VRIE activity is an experience focused on issues related to gender. The current application pilots this narrative interaction in the simulated VR environment as proof-of-concept for using Sumerian to create immersive, story-driven experiences. In the next phase of development, we will create supplemental materials for two primary purposes:

how to use current VRIE activities (i.e., the current prototype) to support learning in formal and informal contexts, and
how to create VRIE activities using the Amazon Sumerian platform.

Our intent it to provide scaffolded experiences for learners and instructional design resources for teachers. An important part of scaling the use of Sumerian as an instructional design tool will be attention to the community of users that emerges from our research and implementation of our prototype and future iterations of this project.

How we built it

We used the Sumerian tools to build a VR experience, along with external video tools to create media for the Sumerian environment. We would be interested to see Sumerian as a part of an entire development suite that more efficiently integrates the tools needed to develop VR experiences that support learning.

Challenges we ran into

We are not skilled programmers. Creating our vision for this VR experience has been limited by our lack of technical expertise, however, we have been able to build a version that supports the narrative engagement we want participants to experience.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we were able to use the Sumerian tools to develop a prototype experience and took the initial steps to realizing our hopes for the VRIE project.

What we learned

We learned that we can definitely use Sumerian to build experiences that can support learning, but will need to create better workflows for onboarding new instructional designers unfamiliar with the tools.

What's next for VRIE Virtual Reality Identity Explorer

We are eager to develop the technical aspects of the Sumerian VR experience and continue creating example activities to share with instructional designers and other educators for their feedback and guidance.

We are also exploring research and development support to implement the VRIE prototype and continue studying the use of mixed reality to support learning.