Hi Karl, thanks for taking the time to look at our video. We agree that immersive technologies will play a big role in the future of education. As technology advances, the hardware becomes more accessible and the software more sophisticated and aligned with the user needs. We just need to ensure we make the most out of it while avoiding pitfalls.

Hi Mercy, thanks for taking the time to look at our video. Some of the challenges we have faced are with regard to student learning how to use the equipment. While younger generations are more tech-oriented than older ones, VR still something new to a lot of students; hence, it takes a while to get comfortable with it and understand how to interact with the virtual environment. We hope that with new advancements in technology the way users interact with the virtual environment will become more intuitive (e.g., now you do not need to use controllers to interact with virtual objects in the Oculus VR headsets).

We have conducted some initial tests to compare control and intervention groups, with some positive results on motivation. We will be publishing the results of our findings in ASEE: “The CLICK Approach and its Impact on Learning Introductory Probability Concepts in an Industrial Engineering Course,” 

Hi Paul, thanks for taking the time to look at our video. We still working on developing multiple VR modules, so as of now we only have this “drill manufacturing”. However, we are working on using Reinforcement Learning to Automatically Generation new Virtual Environments (see reference at the end of the video).

Something that is not shown in the video is that the user of the application can go “down” into the manufacturing floor and take a better look at the process. We are even planning to allow users to modify the speed of certain equipment for them to see the effects of this on the whole system.

Real-life tours are the “ultimate” experience, but it would be extremely time-consuming to try to exactly replicate a real environment into VR (this is without considering the technological limitations of retina displays, haptic technology, etc). Our goal is to help takes students closer to this experience. Also, we have integrated some calculators and notetaking features into the modules. We are still working on improving them, but it will allow the user to take notes, perform calculations, etc.

Hi Jeremy, thanks for taking the time to look at our video. The VR modules shown on the video is the one we are still developing. In the future iteration, the user will be able to use their own hand to interact with virtual objects (e.g., using Oculus Hand tracking)

Hi Gerhard, thanks for taking the time to look at our video. That is a very good point we could explore. It could help with students that are prompt to simulation sickness, but it might impact the "first-person"/immersive experience. 

I agree with Gerhard.  This is what I was thinking about in my earlier post.  It seems that the calculations would be more efficient for students to handle in real-life (at least considering the limitations of today's VR technology), but the experiential aspect could certainly be valuable in the VR setting.

Of course the issue with doing the calculations in real-life while making observations in VR is not very easy to do, since you'd have to switch the VR off and on again.

Yes, this is definitely something we need to work on. The VR modules shown on the video is the one we are still developing. In future iterations, the user will be able to use their own hand to interact with virtual objects using the  Oculus Hand tracking. (e.g., like having a smartwatch calculator that expands on the VR environment).

That sounds cool!  To be able to write or type naturally with your hand would make a huge jump forward in the usability of such a VR lab activity.  Needing to click on everything with a button and pointer positioned with the headgear is not very easy to do for very much time or for many calculations or notes.

Hi Orlando, nice you hear from you. Unfotutanelly, there still a lot of work to be done to make it easier to create VR content. For this project, we used Unity and a lot of hours of work just to create a "simple" module. There still a lot of additional hours of work to improve the module's usability.

Nevertheless, there are some free resources out there that you could use to start implementing VR into your classes (e.g., Google VR Tour, Google Poly, SketcFab). If you would like to discuss more how to integrate VR into your classes lets talk. At my institution, I formed a group (CoP VR/AR) that aims to help faculty integrate VR/AR into their classes.

Hi Peter, definitely, you can reach out to me at: lopezbec at lafayette dot edu