About the Virtual Reality Storytelling class at Newhouse.

1. Virtual Reality Storytelling
NEW 400 (undergrad), 600 (grad)
Fall 2015
Mon-Wed 3:45 – 5:05 p.m.
NEWHOUSE 1, 206B

2. About Me
• Horvitz Chair in Journalism Innovation.
• “Born digital” journalist.
• Digital journalist, product manager, startup
founder, dad, geek.
• And now, teacher!

3. My path …
• 1994 - The Denver Post (reporter)
• 1996 - Washingtonpost.com (launch team)
• 1998 - America Online (social networking products)
• 2004 - The Bakersfield Californian (new products)
• 2007 – Printcasting (funded startup)
• 2010 - BookBrewer (bootstrap startup)

4. Digital
sherpa
I want to help you get up
that mountain.
I can show you the way and
maybe carry some of your
stuff, but I can’t carry you.
We learn by doing.
Photo by: McKay Savage WikiMedia Commons

5. This class will change
• There’s a schedule based on what we know
today. However …
• This space is ever evolving. As it changes, the
class will keep up with the change.
• Grading methodology won’t change.

6. Introductions
• Introduce yourself.
• Questions
– First and last name
– Why did you sign up?
– What have your heard about VR? Or if you’ve
tried it before, what did you think of it?
– How might VR affect your field of study?

7. About the Class
http://vrstorytelling.org
Class web site:

8. Sometimes Blackboard
• Bare-bones Blackboard site.
• Only used for turning in assignments.
(Fair disclosure: I HATE Blackboard).

9. Also network drive
• Some assignments, such as Unity projects,
will be turned in through network folders.
More details on that next week.

10. Keep your work safe
• Make sure you have a hard drive with
thunderbolt / USB 3.0 connector.

11. Review Syllabus
• Open it from http://vrstorytelling.org
• Choose About the Class > Syllabus.
• Or see links in the welcome message.

12. Objectives
• Understand what VR is and how it works.
• Explore and critique different VR experiences
on different devices.
• Learn how to create simple VR scenes in the
Unity gaming engine.
• Get experience with 360 video.

13. Not a gaming class!
• This is class is not a video game class, and we
won’t focus on games much at all.
• We will focus on storytelling techniques that
work in VR, some of which are borrowed from
the gaming world.

14. OK, it’s sort of a gaming class
• Slay the Dragon: Writing Great Stories for
Video Games by Keith Giglio.
• Comes out September 1, 2015 (tomorrow).
Available for preorder from Barnes and
Noble as an eBook for $13.99 or paperback
is $18.83.
• Giglio will be speaking to our class and will
sign printed books afterwards.

15. Independent study options
• 1. Read Slay the Dragon, apply what you learn to
an assignment or project, blog about what you
learned + how applied.
• 2. Take one Lynda.com online class relevant to
the class (see suggestions in Blackboard). Apply
to course work and blog about it.

16. Share Your Finds
• #VRStorytelling Class Finds
• Share your own finds through
Twitter to #vrstorytelling.
They’ll eventually show up
on the class site.

17. Share Your Tips
• When you do something that nobody else has done before,
I may ask you to blog a How-To writeup on the class site
for current and future students.
• You’ll get 1-5 points extra credit depending on what you
did, and the quality of the how-to.

18. Expectations
• Attend every class and arrive on time.
• One absence allowed no questions asked. After
that, final grade goes down a half letter grade
for each unexcused absence.
• Turn in each assignment by the due date:
usually Friday or Monday nights depending on
when it’s assigned. Dates in are Blackboard.

19. Pattern and Workload
• First class of week is instruction (learning), second class of the
week is a lab (doing).
• Most labs connect to assignments.
• Expect at least 4 hours of reading and homework each week.
• Sometimes much more. You will be challenged and often get
frustrated. This is normal! If you don’t give up, getting past
the frustration points is where you learn the most.
• Most who think they don’t understand a concept actually
made it 80-90% through.

20. If you get stuck
• Reach out for help! OFFICE HOURS.
• For more technical assignments, you don’t “fail” if you get
stuck as long as you do the following. In your blog post,
document what you tried, where you got stuck and what
you tried to get unstuck.
• The next class will start with a call for help.
• You can also reach out for help on Twitter, web forums and
by just Googling around.

21. Grade Breakdown
• 40% - Assignments - 80 points possible from 8 assignments,
worth 10 points each.
• 40% - Final Project - 80 points possible.
• 10% - Professionalism and classwork - 20 points possible.
Includes sharing finds, class participation, engaging in
discussions, sharing new stuff you learn.
• 10% - Independent learning – 10%. Book or Lynda class,
apply to your coursework and blog about it.

22. Final Project
• Create a VR experience for Oculus Rift,
Samsung GearVR or Google Cardboard that
tells a story or conveys information relevant
to your field of study.
• Hate your major? It happens. Meet with me to
discuss alternate topics.
• Start thinking about your story now.

23. Graduate requirement
• Grad students must also reach out to and
interview the developer of a specific project.
• Undergrads can get extra credit for doing the
same.

24. Graduate requirement
Two choices:
1)Write a whitepaper about what you learn about the
project from the interview that can be applied to other
projects.
2)For 360 videos, get permission to download the file
and run a field test with subjects. Write your whitepaper
about the subjects’ experience.

25. FERPA forms
• Please fill out this form so that we can use your
work to help future students.
• Note that everything on the class blog is publicly
available. This is to help you a) celebrate your
successes, and b) get help from a larger
community of VRfriends (like when you get
stuck).

26. Register for Class Blog
• Get an account on the class blog:
http://vrstorytelling.org
• You should already have an email invite with
password that you can change later. Click
your name at top right to edit your profile.

27. And remember …
• “There’s no such thing as a stupid question,
but there is such a thing as a LAZY question.”
– Dan Pacheco
• Rather than “Googling me,” first try using
actual Google for answers. Or look in lecture
notes.