Schools across Arizona (and the world) are shutting down this week and requiring their instructors to take their courses online. For those who have never taught online, this could prove to be an overwhelming task to accomplish in such a short time. I want to suggest a way for both teachers and students to still feel engaged, while having to be separated physically.
Many teachers are turning to apps like Zoom and Skype to teach their classes. I want to offer another alternative for office hours and social weekly gatherings for your classes. Many students have never taken an online course and the lack of social interaction could be very detrimental for them. I suggest hosting office hours and possibly weekly gatherings in Virtual Reality (VR), where both the students and the teacher are “present” and can feel more engaged. During this time, teachers can answer student questions, without having to learn to use or even teach in virtual reality. The sense of presence is far more effective in VR than through video conferencing. Many free VR apps like ENGAGE (https://engagevr.io/), Rumii (https://www.dogheadsimulations.com/) and Altspace VR (https://altvr.com/) can be accessed in 2D on a Windows computer (or a Mac running a Windows emulator) for those who do not own a VR headset (which is most people at the present time). *I updated this post because I was just told by Mat Chacon (CEO of dogheadsimulations) that Rumii works directly on a Mac and on an Android phone.
Even in 2D, the sense of presence is very real, as you are actually able to move around and view the room from all angles.
I am sharing an article I recently came across that lists VR apps you might want to look into if needing to work or teach remotely for a while.
https://www.roadtovr.com/vr-apps-work-from-home-remote-office-design-review-training-education-cad-telepresence-wfh/?fbclid=IwAR0icKr3gwFIRXvRXI_zACgSuGCH4rB94gCGp_Okgwysi126YYLUPBJKQMg
I am happy to help out anyone wanting to get started in ENGAGE or AltSpaceVR, as I know those platforms pretty well. I am learning more about Rumii as well, and soon will be able to help there, too.
