The immersive and interactive capabilities of extended reality (XR) technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) offer exciting opportunities in transforming our ability to experience and interact with the world. These technologies are especially powerful for engineering teaching and learning, where they are providing new ways to manipulate objects, practice dangerous or costly hands-on procedures, and visualize abstract concepts and complex data (Moro et al., 2017; Nesembergs et al., 2021).
In recognition and support of the opportunities XR technologies provide, the Center for Learning Design and Technology (CLDT) launched the WSE XR Innovation Awards earlier this year to engage and provide financial support for XR initiatives. A panel consisting of WSE leadership and faculty considered applications and selected 4 groups of award recipients in early July. The awards, which were open to both full- and part-time WSE faculty, distributed four grants intended to promote the acceleration of XR innovations through the development of solutions for use in teaching and learning and through research into real-world applications and interdisciplinary learning and scholarship. These awards reflect WSE and CLDT’s commitment to innovation in engineering education. Read on to learn about each of our 4 project awards.
A nine-person team from the biomedical engineering (BME) department comprised of both clinical and faculty members will use XR, including AR and VR, to bring JHU hospital examining and operating rooms to every student in the BME program, from freshman through graduate-level. They will focus on bedside procedures that are commonly performed in hospitals and clinics, the cardiovascular system, medical imaging, and interventional gastroenterology. Their goal is to combine anatomical XR with clinical immersion so that students can experience a system from the perspective of the doctor, patient, and organ itself.
Drs. Joe Cutrone and Sergey Kushnarev plan to create gamified AR and VR content to help Linear Algebra students visualize and engage with fundamental linear algebra concepts and improve skills in abstraction, understanding, and intuition. Students will utilize AR (for on-campus students) or VR (for off-campus students) technology to explore math embedded in the design of JHU campus buildings, artwork, and statues and solve problems using measurements and information they collect from these spaces.
David Concepcion will design and development of a VR environment where students will manipulate simplified or “primitive” objects such as servers, software modules, and networking cables within a technology system “stack” to practice key cybersecurity skills in his EP course. Predefined “methods” or actions will emulate the typical tasks that an IT professional would conduct to implement and secure the technology stack.
A four-person interdisciplinary team from the computer science department will investigate learning efficacy in performing representative tasks in surgery using sensory input such as user’s eye gaze, gestures, and facial expressions and providing customized feedback based on their competency level. They will first develop an adaptive immersive training and assessment environment that will allow students to learn the workflow of a procedure. Then they will utilize the user’s sensory input to develop a machine learning model that will customize the task difficulty based on the user’s competency level and provide customized audiovisual feedback.
Feeling inspired? Help us push the boundaries of engineering teaching and learning! Due to the healthy interest WSE faculty showed during the call for proposals and WSE and CLDT’s ongoing endeavor to support XR initiatives, we plan to offer the XR Innovation Awards again in the future. Look for another call for proposals in 2023 if you’re interested in exploring this increasingly important area of innovation.
Moro, C., Štromberga, Z., Raikos, A., & Stirling, A. (2017). The effectiveness of virtual and augmented reality in health sciences and medical anatomy. Anatomical Sciences Education, 10(6), 549-559. https://doi.org/10.1002/ase.1696.
Nesembergs, K., Abolins, V., Ormanis, J., & Mednis, A. (2021). Use of augmented and virtual reality in remote higher education: A systematic umbrella review. Education Sciences, 11(8). https://doi.org/ 10.3390/educsci11010008