Student Storytelling with VR
Summary
Virtual reality has the ability to engage students by allowing them to tell their own stories about the planet. In this assignment, students are asked to explain an aspect of geology from their hometown using a 360-degree photosphere, pictures, and narration.
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Learning Goals
Activity Goals:
1) Leverage place-based learning to apply course concepts in the context of the student's own experience.
2) Practice science communication skills and sharing science with others.
Collection of data to tell a geoscience narrative; translate your experience to a virtual environment
science communication; science storytelling
Context for Use
This assignment can be used for students at all levels, from introductory geoscience to upper-level courses.
No specific skills are necessary, but enough content knowledge should be acquired to tell a complete and accurate geologic story. The platform described here, Thinglink, is drag-and-drop (no programming skills needed), fairly intuitive, and requires little if any step-by-step instructions.
This assignment could be used as an end-of-semester project to relate course content to their own experiences.
Description and Teaching Materials
Several platforms can be used for this assignment (see Teaching with Augmented and Virtual Realities Pedagogy page for examples), but assessment suggestions are based on the use of Thinglink.
Thinglink interactive photospheres are viewable in a computer web browser or in an immersive headset on a smartphone.
360-degree cameras are becoming more affordable; depending on the course, they may be able to be checked out for student use. Panoramas can also be used, created using a student's smartphone. Apps on smartphones are further able to record video and narration files to upload to their VR experience.
An example of a completed student assignment can be found here: https://www.thinglink.com/mediacard/1027065439194185730
Assessment
Students should incorporate:
1) a cohesive narrative that allows the viewer to better understand the location;
2) an introductory narration that describes the location and provides the geologic context, including "why should we care";
3) at least five "tags" that each contain text, narration, and an image or video;
4) appropriate attributions for any creative commons images/video they use that are not their own.