VERITAS:Mind-mapping in Virtual Reality

Inquiry based learning is a modern and innovative learning strategy that aims to stimulate students’ interest in a topic and target Bloom’s higher order cognitive process. Reflective tasks, such as mind mapping, support inquiry-based learning. Virtual Reality (VR) presents novel opportunities to help scaffold reflective tasks in inquiry-based learning by supporting use of the 3D space which is not available via existing 2D mind mapping applications. In this paper we present VERITAS, a VR application for mind-mapping based reflective tasks operating on the low-cost Oculus Go device. We discuss the interaction design for the mind-mapping task and evaluate the system from a usability perspective. Our results show that novice participants are able to learn how to use the interactions quickly and utilize them effectively to build mind-maps in 3D. VERITAS establishes the usability of VR and essential interactions to successfully perform abstract and complex reflective tasks like mind-mapping

Breaking Virtual Barriers : Investigating Virtual Reality for Enhanced Educational Engagement

Virtual reality (VR) is an innovative technology that has regained popularity in recent years. In the field of education, VR has been introduced as a tool to enhance learning experiences. This thesis presents an exploration of how VR is used from the context of educators and learners. The research employed a mixed-methods approach, including surveying and interviewing educators, and conducting empirical studies to examine engagement, usability, and user behaviour within VR. The results revealed educators are interested in using VR for a wide range of scenarios, including thought exercises, virtual field trips, and simulations. However, they face several barriers to incorporating VR into their practice, such as cost, lack of training, and technical challenges. A subsequent study found that virtual reality can no longer be assumed to be more engaging than desktop equivalents. This empirical study showed that engagement levels were similar in both VR and non-VR environments, suggesting that the novelty effect of VR may be less pronounced than previously assumed. A study against a VR mind mapping artifact, VERITAS, demonstrated that complex interactions are possible on low-cost VR devices, making VR accessible to educators and students. The analysis of user behaviour within this VR artifact showed that quantifiable strategies emerge, contributing to the understanding of how to design for collaborative VR experiences. This thesis provides insights into how the end-users in the education space perceive and use VR. The findings suggest that while educators are interested in using VR, they face barriers to adoption. The research highlights the need to design VR experiences, with understanding of existing pedagogy, that are engaging with careful thought applied to complex interactions, particularly for collaborative experiences. This research contributes to the understanding of the potential of VR in education and provides recommendations for educators and designers to enhance learning experiences using VR

Logibot:Investigating Engagement and Development of Computational Thinking Through Virtual Reality

In this study we assess the effects of teaching fundamental programming concepts through a virtual reality (VR) block-based programming application and its impact on engagement. As a comparison study, participants played an existing desktop-based game (LightBot) and the developed VR game (LogiBot) covering similar gameplay mechanics and blockbased programming. Initial results indicate that traditional desktop applications are currently more engaging than VR for teaching programming. We thus identify the need for careful design of interaction methods to support ease of use and reward factors to promote engagement in VR-based learning applications beyond the initial wow-factor

Point of Contact:Investigating change in perception through a serious game for COVID-19 preventive measures

COVID-19 exposed the need to identify newer tools to understand perception of information, behavioral conformance to instructions and model the effects of individual motivation and decisions on the success of measures being put in place. We approach this challenge through the lens of serious games. Serious games are designed to instruct and inform within the confines of their magic circle. We built a multiplayer serious game, Point of Contact (PoC), to investigate effects of a serious game on perception and behavior. We conducted a study with 23 participants to gauge perceptions of COVID-19 preventive measures and quantify the change after playing PoC. The results show a significant positive change to participants’ perceptions towards COVID-19 preventive measures, shifting perceptions towards following guidelines more strictly due to a greater awareness of how the virus spreads. We discuss these implications and the value of a serious game like PoC towards pandemic risk modelling at a microcosm level

A non-hybrid method for the PDF equations of turbulent flows on unstructured grids

In probability density function (PDF) methods of turbulent flows, the joint PDF of several flow variables is computed by numerically integrating a system of stochastic differential equations for Lagrangian particles. A set of parallel algorithms is proposed to provide an efficient solution of the PDF transport equation, modeling the joint PDF of turbulent velocity, frequency and concentration of a passive scalar in geometrically complex configurations. An unstructured Eulerian grid is employed to extract Eulerian statistics, to solve for quantities represented at fixed locations of the domain (e.g. the mean pressure) and to track particles. All three aspects regarding the grid make use of the finite element method (FEM) employing the simplest linear FEM shape functions. To model the small-scale mixing of the transported scalar, the interaction by exchange with the conditional mean model is adopted. An adaptive algorithm that computes the velocity-conditioned scalar mean is proposed that homogenizes the statistical error over the sample space with no assumption on the shape of the underlying velocity PDF. Compared to other hybrid particle-in-cell approaches for the PDF equations, the current methodology is consistent without the need for consistency conditions. The algorithm is tested by computing the dispersion of passive scalars released from concentrated sources in two different turbulent flows: the fully developed turbulent channel flow and a street canyon (or cavity) flow. Algorithmic details on estimating conditional and unconditional statistics, particle tracking and particle-number control are presented in detail. Relevant aspects of performance and parallelism on cache-based shared memory machines are discussed.Comment: Accepted in Journal of Computational Physics, Feb. 20, 200

FoodChoices(Q):Exploring the design of a serious game proxy for Likert-style survey questionnaires

Likert-style questionnaires and surveys are commonly used tools for research. To alleviate survey-fatigue, researchers have explored gamification routes to increase engagement and lower drop-outs. However, these attempts still rely on direct use of questionnaire text and focus on creating engagement around the actual activity and do not fully alleviate the challenges of filling survey. In this paper, we explore an alternative approach involving the use of a serious game to capture user responses through in-game activities rather than direct questions. We chose the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) and explored the design challenges of creating a serious game which deploys a sub-sample of the FCQ questions as four mini-game activities. The player actions and decisions are used to compute a result which is compared with their FCQ responses. We demonstrate the method to evaluate the equivalence of game results to the questionnaire responses. We discuss how future serious games can be designed and evaluated to generate similar outcomes while avoiding potential pitfalls through design and analysis