Introducing K12 Teachers to Technology in an Online Grad Program within a Virtual Reality Environment

1. Introducing K12Teachers to Emerging Technologies within an Online Graduate Course that Used an ImmersiveVirtual Reality Environment Eileen O’Connor, Ph.D. (eileen.oconnor@esc.edu) TerriWorman (terriworman@gmail.com) Empire State College, State University of NewYork October 2018
2. Agenda Background design and implementation rationaleProvide Demographics and the study parametersExplain Design and implementationReview Implications for activities that can be accomplished within avatar-based virtual reality environments Consider
3. Background – Purpose forVR & the Study “[K12] Students are wired in, and our instructional strategies need to acknowledge that keeping their attention requires us to use some of the same engagement strategies that are used so successfully by social media, video games and digital environments” (Barber, King, & Buchanan, 2015, p. 64) K12 teachers need to understand, value and use emerging and existing technologies to support their educational efforts Primary goal of this 100% online teacher-education graduate course was to engage teachers in an academic and experiential exploration of technologies required by the rapidly changing K-12 landscape Study Question: is it possible to have K12 teachers actually “experience” immersive virtual-reality built within a community to explore its uses?
4. Developing an Educational Virtual- Reality Environment Reduced pricing structures and increased understanding of VR educational advantages opened venues to educators A virtual-reality environment itself though does not create an immediate instructional or community benefit Developing an educationally-productive virtual-reality experience requires understanding of telepresence Younger individuals, based on their prior virtual experiences, may be more motivated to participate in virtual settings because of this already-familiar telepresence. Virtual educators move beyond simply making 3-D displays of areas that could be developed in 2-D environments.
5. Scaffolding Use ofVirtual Environments AVR environment is merely the background: To ensure an intellectually- challenging experience, consider the appropriate activities, simulations, and collaboration events required for any classroom, meeting or social experience WhenVR used with constructivist principles, can support pedagogically-sound activities instructors must delineate appropriately ill-solved problems that students should explore within the online communities Creative engagement and interactions between students and their fellow online learners leads to increased academic achievement The teaching presence must be evident to create the common purpose, to moderate the discourse and to achieve the balance between engagement and challenge
6. Building Motivation and Collegiality among Student Participants VR environments can be well suited to the experience and insights that adults bring to a learning situation. Meeting within virtual environments can cause students to feel a greater demand for their ownership and responsibility of their learning and their contribution Based upon a well-designed immersive virtual plan, instructors can hope to build commitment, trust and camaraderie
7. Ensure Instructional Success Develop a productive and engaging virtual-reality synchronous experience: • attend to the learning outcomes required by the course • understand the potential attributes of a virtual environments • value the role of telepresence and community creation • place themselves as the hub that threads together a true learning environment.
8. Course Environment /VR Assignments and Interactions Virtual reality environments are readily available from open source materials; several simple instructor developed areas were used too
9. Student Demographics 5 from an elementary environment 2 social studies teachers 2 English teachers a music teacher a physical education teacher one worked with immigrant K-12 populations and their parents
10. Student Demographics No requirement for prior educational or technology backgrounds - four students self-reported prior exposure to virtual gaming. Three of the teachers were male Majority of the students were below the age of 35, two students were within the 35 to 45-year-old age range
11. Guiding Research and Analysis Questions • What aspects of immersion in a virtual-reality environment did students find difficult and how did these difficulties either persist or become resolved? • Were students able to perceive theirVR colleagues as members of a community and what elements may have contributed to their perspective? • What did K12 teachers believe might be helpful to their classrooms in the future?
12. Data Gathering To enable triangulation, multiple data points were gathered: • After each virtual-reality synchronous meeting, students documented and shared their experiences through Snapshots and discussions within the online course • At course completion, they submitted a private self-evaluation of theirVR learning • The instructor preparation of and participation in the virtual-reality experience (which was videotaped) was also used as evidence • Permission to use this instructional data in a confidential and secure manner was procured from the Institutional Review Board of the instructor’s institution
13. Analysis Approach • A grounded theory approach with a constant comparative method used to study the data points noted above to gather insights into effective and also weaker design practices • Examined the statements, generated categories from the comments that emerged, counted how many students reported similar comments and compiled the evidence • Self-evaluation of the students also included their personal assessment of their change in comfort level within the virtual-reality environment during the course and their indication of any prior gaming experience
14. Instructor Planning and Direct Observations First synchronousVR meeting • Preparatory assignment to download the viewer and gain access to the island • Teams assigned by student name in advance of the meeting • 15-minute introduction, explaining the virtual scavenger hunt that was to be documented by Snapshots • Teams moved to locations around the island to say hello and plan their movements • Problems - students arrived late and their team had already left - two students had used avatar names different from their regular names (thus complicating finding team members) • After 30 minutes, the instructor visited the teams at random, offering support when needed
15. Instructor Planning and Direct Observations SecondVR synchronous meeting • Students provided tutorials and video on changing avatar • After a 20-minute overview of avatar clothing and shape modifications, the instructors directed teams to different locations • Instructor visited the different teams finding them busily engaged in their avatar redesign • At the end of session debriefing, students reflected heartily on “identity” within immersive virtual environments, having appeared to move beyond technology struggles and now engaging in deeper conversations emerging in an increasingly networked and virtual society
16. Instructor: planning and direct observations ConcludingVR synchronous meeting • Within the online course, students were given tutorials on basic artifact acquisition, placing, and moving • Instructor overview of artifact placement then students moved to the open-building area • Instructor visits student teams, guiding were needed but mostly supporting their nascent building efforts • Final return debriefing had teams cheerfully speaking of their designs and mishaps and reflectively planning on ways they might use these environments in their classrooms.
17. Key Student Comments Table 1 Aggregated Student-Comments After Meetings or On Self-Evaluation Points Raised by Students 1st 2nd 3rd Self- evaluation Positive social / team experience 92% 86% 92% 90% Technology struggles 67% 64% -- -- Continued topic reflection 25% 35% 50% -- Better than discussion board -- -- -- 60%
18. Final Informal Meeting
19. Specific Student Self- Evaluation – Comfort Level Table 2 Student Self-Reported Confidence Levels (5 highest) at Beginning and End of Course Category With priorVR experience With no priorVR experience Average Confidence Average Confidence Start of course 3.0 1.3 End of course 4.2 3.5
20. Specific Student Self-Evaluation Data Table 3 What challenges and difficulties did you experience in virtual reality? Category # of students % Navigation / basic & advanced 5 50% Building challenges 3 30% Avatar concerns 3 30% Feeling lost at start / not knowing what to do 2 20%
21. Lessons Learned from Direct Experience Provide open environments as well as “realistic” settings Arrange teams and monitor interactions at the outset Develop problem- solving activities that require team solutions Promote team relationships Require debriefings, follow-up reports, and reflections Facilitate interactivity and fun for creativity, collegiality, and vision
22. K12Teacher Reflection on Possible VR Applications Settings for K12 content areas - novels and plays being enacted in aVR space, social studies backgrounds for geography and history lessons, a physical education environment with different fields, and STEM simulations Meeting spaces for K-12 students for homework or afterschool help Meeting spaces for work with parents or even community members that can be nonthreatening and accessible without travel Practice opportunities where soon-to-be graduating high school students could experience different careers and rehearse the behaviors required Professional development meeting spaces that could allow for meetings that are interdisciplinary, respectful of teacher’s time, and comfortably informal
23. Planning theVR Environment/Aligning with Goals and Objectives Virtual-reality environments are more readily available in pre-developed formats which can be easily modified; they can be served from the institution or hosting vendors To design a goodVR experience a course’s goals and objectives become central
24. Preparing the Participants / Optimizing Synchronous Meetings AVR design goal is to create an interactive, enjoyable experience for the participant. The students in the course studied became progressively more comfortable with their surroundings and with their colleagues. However, not all glitches can be accommodated in advance in a time- efficient manner Preparing the participants requires ensuring participants have adequate and appropriate technology, have followed the set up steps, and understand how to access the island, move to multiple locations, adjust the avatar’s view, and take Snapshots (a simpleVR operation)
25. Designing and Sequencing theVirtual- reality Experiences, Mindful of Community When developing the virtual-reality curriculum, the instructor needs to consider both the events and their sequencing in terms of the content-to-be-learned and the virtual community experience Since virtual-reality experiences are not static, instructors need to plan for dynamic, interactive, and possibly disruptive activities Instructors must design environments and assignments that can enable student-directed learning, moving students from initially being somewhat nervous and apprehensive to be collegial, supportive and caring
26. Designing and Sequencing theVirtual- reality Experiences – an Integrative Experience Experiences within the larger course framework using the virtual-reality environment as the place where synchronous, “live,” team-based interactions can occur Integrate Diversity of team problem resolutions and help new participant avatars become comfortable in these environments Allow Trust and community by scaffolding opportunities for exploration, adjustments and creativity and low-entry achievements Build
27. Orchestrating the Immersive Experience / Integrating Beyond theVR Experience Stay within the time limits of aVR meeting is essential to respect the participants’ time Plan for the social support that might be possible from “more knowledgeable others” Embrace the learning challenges participants may have, valuing the natural disequilibrium that can occur Modify assignments and expectations as the need arises Responding to the actual dynamics of an emerging social situation takes precedence in virtual-reality environments as it should in classroom settings
28. Assessing and Evaluating For Learners & For Future Improvements: Assessment Are the participants achieving the intended learning objectives? Is the environment itself enabling a productive experience? Learning Environment is Functioning Effectively
29. Assessing and Evaluating For Learners and For Future Improvements: Evaluation Since this is a new venue for most instructors, it is important to evaluate the larger immersive experience itself • What aspects of the environment proved problematic? • Make adjustments to the pre-visit preparation as well as teaching avatar modifications during initial synchronous meetings • Ask participants directly for areas they found challenging and attend carefully to the undertones in post-meeting interactions • Some participants may require specific and targeted support - attentiveness can provide insights into areas that need improvement.
30. Conclusion As the findings in this study have demonstrated,VR environments can be used effectively to create telepresence, community, collective problem-solving, interactions, and shared experiences, especially important in online environments. The future areas suggested by the K-12 teachers — in content- specific settings, in meeting spaces for parents, students, and professional workshops, in environments for testing behavioral characteristics — demonstrated that their VR experience itself had contributed to their own vision for emerging technologies. Leveraging the components of virtual- reality environments can simulate a shared mutual experience enabling distance experiences that can be rich and community-based

Editor's Notes

Immersive virtual-reality environments for education since the early 2000’s’

Gamification – game like thinking is entering educational practices (Carvalho, Zagalo, & Araujo, 2015, Roberts-Woychesin & Piller 2015, Nordby, Øygardslia, Sverdrup, & Sverdrup, 2017)
Reduced pricing structures and increased understanding of VR educational advantages are opening venues to educators that have already been used effectively in online games (Squire & Jenkins, 2003).
But having a virtual-reality environment itself though does not create an immediate instructional or community benefit.
Frost, Matta, & MacIvor (2015) found that the gamification (bringing in game-like attributes) aspects designed into a learning management system lacked the voluntary and compelling aspect needed to increase usage and motivation.
Developing an educationally-productive virtual-reality experience requires understanding of telepresence
According to Chertoff, Schatz, McDaniel & Bowers (2008), the sense of presence occurs when a person is unable to differentiate the sensory information created by a hardware-mediated environment from that of reality, thus interpreting the virtual input as though it were from the real world.
Martin (2014) considers that younger individuals, based on their prior virtual experiences, will be more motivated to participate in virtual settings because of this already-familiar telepresence.
Schmeil, Eppler, & DeFreitas (2012) remind virtual educators to move beyond simply making 3-D displays of areas that could be developed in 2-D environments.
A VR environment is merely the background.
To ensure an intellectually-challenging experience, the instructor needs to consider the appropriate meetings, discussions, guest speakers, poster sessions, field trips, role-playing activities, simulations, collaboration events, and the like (O’Connor & Domingo, 2017) as would be required for any classroom, meeting or social experience.
McManimon (2012) purports that virtual environments, when used with constructivist principles, can support pedagogically-sound activities, such as situated learning, role-playing, cooperative/collaborative learning, problem-based learning, and creative learning.
However, instructors must delineate appropriately ill-solved problems that students should explore within the online communities (Barber et al. 2015). These problems could involve the use of the virtual environment itself or could relate to the “content” to be learned.
Bishop’s and Hong’s (2012) analysis of educational literature about effective online discussion concluded that it was the creative engagement and interactions between students and their fellow online learners that had led to increased academic achievement.
Yücel & Usluel, (2016) and Richardson, Arbaugh, Cleveland-Innes, Ice, Swan & Garrison, (2012), in noting the contributing components of cognitive, social, and teacher presence with the community of inquiry framework, found that the teaching presence must be evident to create the common purpose, to moderate the discourse and to achieve the balance between engagement and challenge, noted by Moneta & Csikszentmihalyi (1996).
Virtual reality environments are readily available from open source materials; several simple instructor developed areas were used too:
easy access with open seating, large signs and slide presentations (left side);
other areas had premade realistic venues from open source suppliers (right side);
a building-space was also designated for student experimentation
The K12 students within this particular course included:
5 from an elementary environment
2 social studies teachers
2 English teachers
a music teacher
a physical education teacher
another worked with immigrant K-12 populations and with their parents in her social-work like environment where she visited homes and prepared educational materials.
To guide the study of the virtual-reality participatory experience, the following questions were asked:
What aspects of immersion in a virtual-reality environment did students find difficult and how did these difficulties either persist or become resolved?
Were students able to perceive their VR colleagues as members of a community and what elements may have contributed to their perspective?
What did K12 teachers believe might be helpful to their classrooms in the future?
A grounded theory approach with a constant comparative method (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) was used to study the data points noted above to gather insights into effective and also weaker design practices.
The authors examined the statements, generated categories from the comments that emerged, counted how many students reported similar comments and compiled the evidence.
Of note, the self-evaluation of the students also included their personal assessment of their change in comfort level within the virtual-reality environment during the course and their indication of any prior gaming experience.
the preparatory assignment had students already able to download the viewer and gain access to the island.
Teams were assigned by student name in advance of the meeting.
The instructor gave a 15-minute introduction, explaining the virtual scavenger hunt that was to be documented by Snapshots;
Teams moved to locations around the island to say hello and plan their movements.
Problems arose when some students arrived late and their team had already left and two students had used avatar names different from their regular names (thus complicating finding team members).
After waiting 30 minutes at the initial landing area to help stragglers, the instructor visited the teams at random, offering support when needed. However, by that time, most groups were productively working together.
Students w provided with tutorials and video on changing avatar appearances but were also told this would be reviewed at the meeting kickoff.
The instructor knew that the multistep process of changing clothing on the avatar, given the time limitation, would require the team members’ help. After a 20-minute overview of avatar clothing and shape modifications, the instructors directed teams to different locations.
The instructor visited the different teams finding them busily engaged in their avatar redesign.
At the end of session debriefing, students reflected heartily on “identity” within immersive virtual environments, having appeared to move beyond technology struggles and now engaging in deeper conversations emerging in an increasingly networked and virtual society.
In advance of this concluding VR synchronous meeting,
within the online course, students were given tutorials on basic artifact acquisition, placing, and moving, however, they were told they would also be given a building briefing at the meeting’s launch.
Students though were asked to gather artifacts (a simple right-click and save to inventory) on an earlier day or at least 15 minutes before the meeting.
The instructor launched the meeting with an overview of artifact placement then students moved to the open-building area.
However, due to so many builders at once, the island crashed and students all returned after a five-minute hiatus.
The instructor visited the student teams, guiding were needed but mostly supporting their nascent building efforts.
The final return debriefing had teams cheerfully speaking of their designs and mishaps and reflectively planning on ways they might use these environments in their classrooms.
Of particular note, during the final debriefing in the virtual space was the call from students themselves to share email addresses in the chat area so correspondence continue after the course ended.
Key Student Comments: after meetings & during self analysis
Almost all students explicitly commented on the positive value of the social experience in the problem-solving activities of navigating the environment, adjusting their avatars, and exploring some basic artifact positioning.
The technology struggles that surfaced in over half of the comments after the first and second meetings were mitigated later
After meeting two, all who mentioned technology struggles talked about the help from their colleagues in solving their tech problems.
In the self-evaluation, 60% volunteered that the immersive experience created stronger relationships than courses they had experienced with discussion-board-only online interactions.
After the three meetings where students posted within the discussion board, conviviality was the overall tone. After the third meeting, when the students had created their own, on-the-fly virtual setting one student wrote, on seeing another team’s posting with a piano bar:

Oh my goodness! It looks like your group had so much fun. You definitely let your creative juices flow! I'm jealous, I generally stayed within realistic limitations. I feel like I totally missed the fun of being in a VIRTUAL environment! Good job!
At the close of the course, 10 students submitted a self-evaluation (only to the instructor) reflecting upon their experience
Stating their comfort level at the start and end of the course
Indicating if they had any prior VR experiences.
Initial confidence levels were low for those without prior VR experience, but by the end of the course most students were reasonably comfortable.
In stating their difficulties in using the virtual-reality environments, almost half being lost and not knowing what to do at the outset.
Thirty percent of the students cited concerns about the look of their avatar and the same percentage felt challenged by their limited VR building abilities, reinforcing the previous reports they gave to the class at large
The instructor’s and researcher’s review of the immersive VR experience itself suggest that to advance deep learning and productive relationships in these environments, it is necessary to:
— Provide open environments as well as “realistic” settings
— Arrange teams and monitor interactions at the outset
— Develop problem-solving activities that require team solutions
— Promote team relationships
— Require debriefings, follow-up reports, and reflections
— Facilitate interactivity and fun for creativity, collegiality, and vision.
These K-12 teachers also reflected in an open ended manner on possible VR environments and applications in K12 including:
— Settings and backgrounds for K12 content areas, such as novels and plays being enacted in a VR space, social studies backgrounds for geography and history lessons, a physical education environment with different fields, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) simulations;
— Meeting spaces for K-12 students for homework or afterschool help;
— Meeting spaces for work with parents or even community members that can be nonthreatening and accessible without travel;
— Practice opportunities where soon-to-be graduating high school students could experience different careers and rehearse the behaviors required;
— Professional development meeting spaces that could allow for meetings that are interdisciplinary, respectful of teacher’s time, and comfortably informal.
Virtual-reality environments are becoming readily available in pre-developed formats which can be easily modified; they can be served from the institution or hosting vendors (as reported by O’Connor and Domingo, 2017).
Although sophisticated simulations and environments can be built, this report focuses on environments that can be used with minimal adjustments or adaptations.
Of note too is that immersive virtual-reality environments can also directly incorporate websites and streamed videos.
To design a good VR experience a course’s goals and objectives become central
It is necessary to rethink instructor-dominated environments, particularly within the disciplines of social sciences, business and management, social work, and human resources and to move beyond the hegemony of the discussion board alone.
What are the course or environment goals that relate to building an understanding that is dynamic, interactive, or supported by multiple perspectives?
Preparing the participants requires ensuring that these participants have adequate and appropriate technology (Domingo & Bradley, 2017) and they have followed the set up steps. To optimize the virtual-reality time itself, consider the following:
— In advance of the first VR meeting, have a submitted assignment that documents access to the island, movement to multiple locations, adjustments to the avatar’s view, and Snapshot taking (a simple VR operation);
— Remind students of the Internet-like open environment within networked VR environments and require the use of student names; teach students how to exit environments should they feel uncomfortable;
— Particularly in open source environments with limited preset avatar options, provide tutorials or direct instructions on changing avatar appearance or clothing;
— Prepare rewards and badging systems to encourage procedural accomplishments.
A VR design goal is to create an interactive, enjoyable experience for the participant. The students in the course studied became progressively more comfortable with their surroundings and with their colleagues. However, not all glitches can be accommodated in advance in a time-efficient manner.
When developing the virtual-reality curriculum, the instructor needs to consider both the events and their sequencing in terms of the content-to-be-learned and the virtual community experience. Since virtual-reality experiences are not static, instructors need to plan for dynamic, interactive, and possibly disruptive activities. Instructors must design environments and assignments that can enable student-directed learning, moving students from initially being somewhat nervous and apprehensive to be collegial, supportive and caring.
When designing for the content experience itself, consider:
— inviting speakers, guests, or lecturers;
— requiring virtually-rendered poster sessions;
— structuring role-playing activities (particularly important in service learning, social work, management training, patient care, K-12 student management),
— enacting plays or sections from novels or movie;
— streaming web-based video-events or using Internet or web resources.
Integrate these experiences within the larger course framework using the virtual-reality environment as the place where synchronous, “live,” team-based interactions can occur.
For instance, a team could examine a report or an academic or sociological article about a problem that needs to be solved, working collectively to suggest some solutions.
Planning for teams can allow a diversity of problem resolutions and can help new participant avatars become comfortable in these environments.
Plan for building trust and community by scaffolding opportunities for exploration, adjustments and creativity (redesigning an avatar) and low-entry achievements (submitting a Snapshot of their avatar with an interesting background).
Responding to the actual dynamics of an emerging social situation takes precedence in virtual-reality environments as it should in classroom settings. Instructors should: modify assignments and expectations as the need arises; embrace the learning challenges participants may have, valuing the natural disequilibrium that can occur (Piaget, 1950); and plan for the social support that might be possible from “more knowledgeable others” (Vygotsky, 1978).
Some practical applications to support the actual virtual-reality events:
— Plan for instructor presence throughout the key skill-development activities; although have individual and team experiences without the instructor hovering;
— Launch the first virtual-reality experiences with open-ended activities such as scavenger hunts, avatar dress-up challenges, and virtual visiting experiences;
— Create teams with knowledge of the participants prior experience with VR, at least for initial activities; encourage sharing of experience and abilities and find official or subtle ways to reward good team efforts;
— Particularly if meeting activities have centered around team-building and collaboration, require the event to conclude with all teams gathering to debrief on the experience itself;
— Extend the meeting, reflections, and analysis from a synchronous experience by having teams report on their collective learning or experience to further delve further into ideas raised during the meeting
Staying within the time limits of a VR meeting is essential to respect the participants’ time. Since it is desirable to have participants take ownership of the space, instructors can encourage students to remain after he or she exits the environment.
To understand whether any learning environment is functioning effectively, it must be determined if the participants are achieving the intended learning objectives and if the environment itself is enabling a productive experience.
As in the reported study, instructors can gain actual participatory knowledge during the event and VR debriefings. In addition, as reported by O’Connor and Domingo (2017), data can be readily gathered through: Snapshots taken to document events; reports, surveys, and quizzes through the VR environment or later online forms; and, videotapes of the students’ experiences.
Awards could be given through badges (Hakulinen, Auvinen & Korhonen, 2015). When more robust mastery is required, in-depth papers or reports could be submitted outside the virtual environment and evaluated with the aid of rubrics.
However, particularly since this is a new venue for most instructors, it is important to evaluate the larger immersive experience itself.
What aspects of the environment proved problematic? In the study reported above, almost 30% of the students reported the feeling of being lost or disconnected initially. Another 30% reported concerns about their avatars and not being comfortable with their appearance.
The author/instructor will make adjustments to the pre-visit preparation as well as teaching avatar modifications during initial synchronous meetings.
Instructors can ask participants directly for areas they found challenging and they should attend carefully to the undertones in post-meeting interactions.
Some participants may require specific and targeted support, however, is not be possible to satisfy the unique expectations of each visitor (as is true of any learning or communication experience). However, attentiveness can provide insights into areas that need improvement.

Introducing K12 Teachers to Technology in an Online Grad Program within a Virtual Reality Environment

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