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Virtual Reality at PUL

Virtual reality (VR) is a realistic and immersive simulation of a virtual environment, experienced through interactive software and hardware. VR technology is available to the Princeton University community at the Stokes Library in Wallace Hall.

WWS 401a Improving the Interventions

Course:

  • WWS 401-Improving the Interventions

Activity:

  1. Instructor and PUL technologist embeds Virtual Reality programming into the curriculum through an immersive experience of 360 video illustrating The Battle of Fallujah. 

  2. Instructor requires students to use the Oculus Quest and the immersive extended reality content to discover the reality of military intervention. 

  3. Instructor has the class discuss their reactions and feelings to seeing the devastation and change. 

  4. Instructor requires students to discuss how this intimate experience has affected their policy prescriptions and understanding of military intervention. 

Context/Benefits:​

In fall 2019, PUL with Professor Rick Barton, lecturer of public and international affairs in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) and co-director of the University’s Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative, who utilized the equipment in his WWS junior task force course, Improving the Interventions, to help students gain a better understanding of military intervention and the impact of warfare. 

Using Oculus Quest headsets, undergraduate students interacted with an in-depth 360 degree documentary about the fight for Fallujah. Barton then facilitated a discussion about how it felt to be in battle. Students expressed that they experienced a more realistic sense of life in a war zone and felt better equipped to make more informed policy decisions. One student commented that “the small size of the enemy combatant jail cells made me realize the reality of the situation.”

When asked about how VR enhances the classroom experience, Barton said, “The course requires students to improve their local knowledge, and since there is no field work, the VR creates a sense of immediacy that we all valued. . . A central part of learning is building a personal sense of place and people, and VR provides that in a realistic way.”

GEO 366/WWS 451 Climate Change: Scientific Basis, Policy Implications

Course:

  • GEO 366/WWS 451 Climate Change: Scientific Basis, Policy Implications

  • Activity:

  1. Instructor embeds Virtual Reality programming into the curriculum through a drop-in workshop or mandatory homework assignment.

  2. Instructor requires students to use the application Discover VR to virtually visit different areas of the globe that are being impacted by climate change.

  3. Instructor has the class discuss their reactions and feelings to seeing the devastation and change. 

  4. Instructor requires students to discuss how this intimate experience has affected their policy prescriptions. 

Benefits:

Climate change can be an incremental and unobservable phenomena, and this affects the urgency of policy prescriptions and implementations. Moreover, most of the negative impact of climate change are geographically difficult to access. A VR experience would make an emotional impact on the students and could incentives them to study this further, or make personal changes. 

Public Speaking: ENG 230

Course:

Public Speaking: ENG 230

Activity: 

  1. Instructor embeds Virtual Reality programming into the curriculum through a drop-in workshop or a mandatory homework assignment. 

  2. Instructor requires students to practice their final oral presentation multiple times using a public speaking VR application. 

  3. There are many applications that replicate the stress, fear, and trepidation of public speaking. 

  4. This programming would be realistic practice of giving an oral presentation in front of a crowd. 

Benefits:

Public speaking is a skill that is built through repetition and deliberate practice in front of a crowd. Using VR to supplement the traditional curriculum would benefit the students with realistic practice, and would assist to minimize the fear and stress of public speaking by making it a every-day procedure.

ART 201

Course:

Roman Architecture: ART 201

Activity:

  1. Instructor included a Virtual Reality programming into the curriculum through a drop-in workshop or a mandatory homework assignment. 

  2. Instructor required students to visit the roman coliseum through a virtual reality application and write a short reflective essay on the structure components of the space. In addition, the instructor could have the students identify prominent components, previously unnoticeable, while they were immersed in the space. 

Benefits:

Using VR to supplement stationary resources would assist the students in experiencing the impact of great architecture while understanding the structural components and design elements more intrinsically. Most importantly, it is a fun way for them to gain an understanding of their field and the world. 

CEE 463 Exhibition-Engineering Library

Course:

  • CEE 463 Exhibition- Engineering Library

Activity:

A Virtual Reality Exhibition is available  CEE 463, A Social and Multidimensional Exploration of Structures taught by Maria Garlock and Branko Glisic taught in 2016. The focus of the 2016 course was “Creativity in Cuban Thin Shell Structures”. The Virtual Reality Exhibition uses the Oculus Rift and offers an immersive experience of the structures explored during the class site visit.

Benefits:

The virtual experience illustrates the multidimensional exploration of structure that are visited, which assists in embedding the experience and assists in memory recall.