大象传媒

Virtual teaching has become the new norm at post-secondary institutions during the current pandemic. As instructors adapt, 大象传媒 researchers Steve DiPaola and Jeremy Turner see opportunities to push virtual worlds further鈥攁s they are doing this semester by enabling their students to become avatars.

Students and instructors are using Tivoli Cloud VR in classes led by DiPaola, a professor in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology, and Turner, a Cognitive Sciences instructor, to set up their own personal avatars and join the virtual classroom. The researchers are using the new, open source virtual reality platform to experiment with advanced and cutting-edge VR techniques.

In the virtual classroom, users can navigate about the room and talk to other users. The platform is built to have fully functional media surfaces, allowing users to display slides, media files, and show videos within the virtual classroom.

Turner, who is using Tivoli Cloud VR exclusively to teach his COGS 100 course, uses a full VR system including a headset. This enables him to control his hands, head, and body movements more effectively.

鈥淭he Tivoli Cloud VR experience seems so natural that I forget I am teaching from my home and it feels just like the live classes I have taught for years,鈥� he said. The platform can also be used via desktop computers in which case gestural movements are voice-activated and locomotion is controlled through the keyboard.

An interesting feature of the platform is the acoustic attenuation. One of the downfalls to using video conferencing platforms, says DiPaola, is something that he calls 鈥減ass the mic鈥� where only one person can speak at a time. 鈥淭hat is like being on stage and not all students like that,鈥� says DiPaola.

Voice attenuation means that audio becomes louder and quieter depending on how close the user is to a speaker when they move about the virtual space.

DiPaola has found this feature to be hugely beneficial for students because they can have more private conversations. They can move about the rooms and talk and ask questions to other users without being at the centre of everyone else鈥檚 attention. This feature helps students to feel more comfortable speaking up and supports more community-building.

鈥淭ivoli Cloud VR is a multi-user virtual reality platform that is very next generation, meaning that it鈥檚 not just a game engine,鈥� says Caitlyn Meeks, Tivoli Cloud VR CEO and co-founder. 鈥淚t鈥檚 built to handle hundreds of people in the same space at the same time.鈥�

Instructors across the university have been working to weave community into their online classes. 鈥淲e鈥檙e really concerned about students and burnout and being alone,鈥� says DiPaola. "This technology goes a long way to support the element of human connection missing from online interactions and remote classes."

DiPaola and his team of graduate students are currently exploring other uses for this technology, including the use of VR technology for training healthcare workers.

AVAILABLE 大象传媒 EXPERTS

STEVE DIPAOLA, professor, School of Interactive Arts & Technology | sdipaola@sfu.ca

JEREMY TURNER, sessional instructor, Cognitive Science                  
jot@sfu.ca

CONTACT 

MELISSA SHAW, 大象传媒 Communications & Marketing 
236.880.3297 | melissa_shaw@sfu.ca

ABOUT SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

As Canada鈥檚 engaged university, 大象传媒 works with communities, organizations and partners to create, share and embrace knowledge that improves life and generates real change. We deliver a world-class education with lifelong value that shapes change-makers, visionaries and problem-solvers. We connect research and innovation to entrepreneurship and industry to deliver sustainable, relevant solutions to today鈥檚 problems. With campuses in British Columbia鈥檚 three largest cities鈥擵ancouver, Burnaby and Surrey鈥敶笙蟠� has eight faculties that deliver 193 undergraduate degree programs and 127 graduate degree programs to more than 37,000 students. The university now boasts more than 165,000 alumni residing in 143 countries.