"Seeing the Faces Is So Important" -- Experiences From Online Team Meetings on Commercial Virtual Reality Platforms

During the Covid-19 pandemic, online meetings became common for daily teamwork in the home office. To understand the opportunities and challenges of meeting in virtual reality (VR) compared to video conferences, we conducted the weekly team meetings of our human-computer interaction research lab on five off-the-shelf online meeting platforms over four months. After each of the 12 meetings, we asked the participants (N = 32) to share their experiences, resulting in 200 completed online questionnaires. We evaluated the ratings of the overall meeting experience and conducted an exploratory factor analysis of the quantitative data to compare VR meetings and video calls in terms of meeting involvement and co-presence. In addition, a thematic analysis of the qualitative data revealed genuine insights covering five themes: spatial aspects, meeting atmosphere, expression of emotions, meeting productivity, and user needs. We reflect on our findings gained under authentic working conditions, derive lessons learned for running successful team meetings in VR supporting different kinds of meeting formats, and discuss the team's long-term platform choice.Comment: This article has been published at Frontiers in Virtual Reality, Research Topic "Everyday Virtual and Augmented Reality: Methods and Applications, Volume II": https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2022.94579

User-Environment Relations : A Postphenomenology of Virtual Reality

Innen HCI blir interaksjon tradisjonelt forstått som noe som skjer mellom de forhåndsantatte enhetene «menneskelig bruker» og «teknologisk objekt». Særlig tvinger omsluttende VR-teknologi oss til å revurdere disse antagelsene, ettersom den menneskelige brukeren og det virtuelle miljøet former hverandre gjensidig i relasjonene som konstitueres mellom dem. Postfenomenologien ser ut til å være en lovende kandidat for det å redegjøre for kompleksiteten til VR-mediering ettersom den tilbyr et mer helhetlig syn, og tar hensyn til hvordan teknologier tar del i konstitueringen av menneskers livsverdener. Ettersom virtuelle miljøer ikke bare er verktøy vi samhandler med eller bruker, men miljøer hvor vi eksisterer og som vi blir formet gjennom, ser postfenomenologien ut til å tilby et lovende perspektiv for å fremme vår forståelse av hvordan VR tar del i å endre vår opplevelse av hvem vi er i forhold til våre verdener. Denne doktorgradsavhandlingen undersøker hvordan postfenomenologi kan tas i bruk konstruktivt for å få en kvalitativ forståelse av brukeropplevelse i omsluttende VR-teknologi. Avhandlingen presenterer teoretiske, metodiske og empiriske bidrag. Teoretisk sett introduseres menneske-teknologi-relasjonen som VR utgjør som bruker-miljø-relasjoner. Gjennom en analyse av menneske-teknologi-relasjonen som VR utgjør, demonstreres det hvordan forskere kan dra nytte av en postfenomenologisk forståelse av VR, samt hvordan VR-mediet selv krever en revurdering av tradisjonelle postfenomenologiske kategorier av menneske-teknologi-relasjoner. Metodisk sett, foreslås «VR Go-along»-metoden som en passende tilnærming for å gi kvalitative vurderinger av brukeropplevelsen som mediert i de konstituerte bruker-miljø-relasjonene. Empirisk sett, presenterer avhandlingen en kvalitativ og utforskende «in-the-wild»-studie av omsluttende VR-bruk over to måneder, hvor «VR Go-along»-metoden brukes til å undersøke deltakernes brukeropplevelse slik de er mediert i de konstituerte bruker-miljø-relasjonene. Denne avhandlingen fungerer som en refleksiv redegjørelse av forfatterens undersøkelse om bruken av postfenomenologi for å gi en forståelse av mediering i omsluttende VR-teknologi. Den demonstrerer det gjensidig fordelaktige forholdet mellom postfenomenologi og omsluttende VR og illustrerer hvordan postfenomenologiske undersøkelser av omsluttende VR-mediering kan gjennomføres. Gjennom avhandlingen argumenteres det for at forskere kan få en mer helhetlig forståelse av hvordan VR medierer brukeropplevelse ved å se på hvordan brukeropplevelsen i omsluttende VR medieres i de konstituerte bruker-miljø-relasjonene. Bidraget til denne avhandlingen fungerer som en foreløpig undersøkelse av hvordan postfenomenologi kan brukes fruktbart innen HCI for å forstå og spørre om brukeropplevelsen i omsluttende VR og relasjonene som omsluttende VR gir opphav til.In HCI, interaction is traditionally understood as something that occurs between the pre-given entities of a human user and a technological object. The technology of Immersive Virtual Reality (VR), in particular, forces us to reconsider these presuppositions, as the human user and the virtual environment mutually shape each other in the relations constituted between them. Postphenomenology seems to be a promising candidate to account for the complexities of VR mediation as it takes a more holistic view, attending to how technologies mediate human beings' lifeworlds. As virtual environments are not just tools we interact with or use, but environments in which we exist and through which we are shaped, postphenomenology seems to offer a promising perspective for furthering our understanding of how VR takes part in altering our experience of who we are in relation to our worlds. This doctoral dissertation presents an inquiry into how postphenomenology can be constructively used to gain a qualitative understanding of user experience in Immersive VR. The dissertation presents theoretical, methodical and empirical contributions. Theoretically, the human-technology relation that VR constitute is introduced as user-environment relations. Through an analysis of the human-technology relation that VR constitutes, it is demonstrated how researchers can benefit from a postphenomenological understanding of VR as well as how VR prompts a reconsideration of traditional postphenomenological categories of human-technology relations. Methodically, it proposes the VR Go-along method as an approach to qualitatively assessing the user experience as mediated in the constituted user-environment relations. Empirically, this dissertation presents a qualitative and explorative in-the-wild study of Immersive VR use over two months, where the VR Go-along is utilised to inquire into the participants' user experience as mediated in the constituted user-environment relations. This dissertation serves as a reflexive account of the author's inquiry into the use of postphenomenology to provide an understanding of Immersive VR mediation. It demonstrates the mutually beneficial relationship between postphenomenology and Immersive VR and illustrates how postphenomenological inquiries into Immersive VR mediation can be conducted. Throughout the dissertation, it is argued that researchers can gain a more holistic understanding of how VR mediates user experience by attending to how the user experience in Immersive VR is mediated in the constituted user-environment relations. The contribution of this dissertation serves as a preliminary inquiry into how postphenomenology can be fruitfully employed in HCI to understand and inquire into the user experience in Immersive VR and the relations to which it gives rise.Doktorgradsavhandlin

A Grounded Theory Study of Digital Discipleship Methods for Effectiveness in the Phygital Church

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to investigate digital discipleship methods and their effectiveness in the phygital (physical + digital) church within various US- based evangelical networks. Throughout this research, a grounded theory study was generally defined as one “in which a researcher derives a general, abstract theory of a process, action, or interaction grounded in the views of participants” (Creswell & Creswell, 2017, p.13). Furthermore, the phygital church was defined as a group of 10-100 people who “utilize the strengths of physical church and the strengths of digital church” (Stadia Church Planting, 2020, p. 4) to gather for the purposes found in Acts 2:41-47 (ESV, 2016). Whereas effectiveness was generally defined as “multiplying and sending [disciples], not [simply] gathering and counting” them (Ferguson et al., 2018). Faithful effectiveness and multiplication by today’s church ensures obedient fulfillment of Jesus’ commands in Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV, 2016) (Etzel, 2017). Nonetheless, through a robust collection and committed analysis of qualitative data, this researcher attempted to gain critical insights from digital church leaders; thus, generating a new model and best practice methods for digital discipleship and effectiveness in phygital church networks

Balancing the Double-Edged Sword of Implementation: An Eclectic Approach

This portfolio is a compilation which expresses the author’s perspective on necessary considerations for teachers when implementing ideas in the classroom. The thoughts and perspectives showed in this portfolio have been shaped by the author’s previous formal and informal teaching experiences and the opportunities to further his understanding of teaching and research during his time in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU). This portfolio is comprised of two sections: The first section consists of Teaching perspectives, which include the author’s desired professional environment, his teaching philosophy statement, and observations obtained through observing other teachers. The second consists of two research papers and an annotated bibliography, which discuss an eclectic approach to foreign language classroom implementation in an effort to mitigate the drawbacks inherent in any idea

Interdisciplinary Insights for Digital Touch Communication

Communication is increasingly moving beyond ‘ways of seeing’ to ‘ways of feeling’. This Open Access book provides social design insights and implications for HCI research and design exploring digitally mediated touch communication. It offers a socially orientated map to help navigate the complex social landscape of digitally mediated touch for communication: from everyday touch-screens, tangibles, wearables, haptics for virtual reality, to the tactile internet of skin. Drawing on literature reviews, new case-study vignettes, and exemplars of digital touch, the book examines the major social debates provoked by digital touch, and investigates social themes central to the communicative potential and societal consequences of digital touch: · Communication environments, capacities and practices · Norms associations and expectations · Presence, absence and connection · Social imaginaries of digital touch · Digital touch ethics and values The book concludes with a discussion of the significance of social understanding and methods in the context of Interdisciplinary collaborations to explore touch, towards the design of digital touch communication, ‘ways of feeling’, that are useable, appropriate, ethical and socially aware

Multimodality in {VR}: {A} Survey

Virtual reality has the potential to change the way we create and consume content in our everyday life. Entertainment, training, design and manufacturing, communication, or advertising are all applications that already benefit from this new medium reaching consumer level. VR is inherently different from traditional media: it offers a more immersive experience, and has the ability to elicit a sense of presence through the place and plausibility illusions. It also gives the user unprecedented capabilities to explore their environment, in contrast with traditional media. In VR, like in the real world, users integrate the multimodal sensory information they receive to create a unified perception of the virtual world. Therefore, the sensory cues that are available in a virtual environment can be leveraged to enhance the final experience. This may include increasing realism, or the sense of presence; predicting or guiding the attention of the user through the experience; or increasing their performance if the experience involves the completion of certain tasks. In this state-of-the-art report, we survey the body of work addressing multimodality in virtual reality, its role and benefits in the final user experience. The works here reviewed thus encompass several fields of research, including computer graphics, human computer interaction, or psychology and perception. Additionally, we give an overview of different applications that leverage multimodal input in areas such as medicine, training and education, or entertainment; we include works in which the integration of multiple sensory information yields significant improvements, demonstrating how multimodality can play a fundamental role in the way VR systems are designed, and VR experiences created and consumed

On evangelizing an avatar : an empirical exploration of the expression of faith in virtual reality

Mission is a central aspect of the Christian faith and much thought is given to the challenge of proclaiming the gospel in a new context or to a different people group (i.e. contextualization). In recent years, a new context has come to the forefront that has been and is being created through technology, namely virtual reality (VR). The purpose of this study is to explore how contextualization, with regards to evangelization, needs to be done in VR. The proposed thesis is that VR provides a new context in which the Christian faith is, or should be, shared in a contextualized way. Although much thought is given to the question of religion in VR, it mostly focuses on the nature of communities online. This study addresses the issue of online evangelization, which has so far received less attention. This doctoral thesis is structured after the empirical-theological praxis cycle of Faix (2007a), and the Policy Delphi Method (PDM) is the research technique used. Through the PDM, a panel of experts from different backgrounds (theologians, sociologists, and practitioners) discussed the various ways in which VR affects evangelization, the way people form their religious identity, and how contextualization could take place. The aim of this research is to contribute to the field of missiology by investigating VR as a new context in which to proclaim the Christian faithChristian Spirituality, Church History and MissiologyD. Th. (Missiology

On evangelizing an avatar : an empirical exploration of the expression of faith in virtual reality

Mission is a central aspect of the Christian faith and much thought is given to the challenge of proclaiming the gospel in a new context or to a different people group (i.e. contextualization). In recent years, a new context has come to the forefront that has been and is being created through technology, namely virtual reality (VR). The purpose of this study is to explore how contextualization, with regards to evangelization, needs to be done in VR. The proposed thesis is that VR provides a new context in which the Christian faith is, or should be, shared in a contextualized way. Although much thought is given to the question of religion in VR, it mostly focuses on the nature of communities online. This study addresses the issue of online evangelization, which has so far received less attention. This doctoral thesis is structured after the empirical-theological praxis cycle of Faix (2007a), and the Policy Delphi Method (PDM) is the research technique used. Through the PDM, a panel of experts from different backgrounds (theologians, sociologists, and practitioners) discussed the various ways in which VR affects evangelization, the way people form their religious identity, and how contextualization could take place. The aim of this research is to contribute to the field of missiology by investigating VR as a new context in which to proclaim the Christian faith.Christian Spirituality, Church History and MissiologyD. Th.(Missiology

Virtual Body Ownership Illusions for Mental Health: A Narrative Review.

Over the last 20 years, virtual reality (VR) has been widely used to promote mental health in populations presenting different clinical conditions. Mental health does not refer only to the absence of psychiatric disorders but to the absence of a wide range of clinical conditions that influence people\u2019s general and social well-being such as chronic pain, neurological disorders that lead to motor o perceptual impairments, psychological disorders that alter behaviour and social cognition, or physical conditions like eating disorders or present in amputees. It is known that an accurate perception of oneself and of the surrounding environment are both key elements to enjoy mental health and well-being, and that both can be distorted in patients suffering from the clinical conditions mentioned above. In the past few years, multiple studies have shown the effectiveness of VR to modulate such perceptual distortions of oneself and of the surrounding environment through virtual body ownership illusions. This narrative review aims to review clinical studies that have explored the manipulation of embodied virtual bodies in VR for improving mental health, and to discuss the current state of the art and the challenges for future research in the context of clinical care