This Innovative Practice Full Paper presents findings from the implementation of a virtual reality-based learning module. In the Fall of 2020, a prototype for a novel intervention namely, Virtual/Augmented-Reality-Based Discipline Exploration Rotations (VADERs), was offered as part of the first-year Introduction to Architectural Engineering (AE) classes at two universities. VADERs will ultimately be a collection of modules that are designed to improve student engagement and diversity-awareness by providing interactive virtual explorations of an engineering discipline and its sub-disciplines. VADERs utilize an open source, device-agnostic, and browser-based three-dimensional Virtual Reality (VR) platform, creating unique accessibility, synchronous social affordances, and media asset flexibility. The conjecture explored in this paper is: Having first-year engineering students experience Architectural Engineering and its sub-disciplines through an interactive VADER module, will improve their self-efficacy in regards to their commitment to studying the discipline. A total of 89 students participated in the VADER pilot in Fall 2020. Complete data was collected from 67 of these participants in the form of pre- and post- surveys, and final project deliverables. Results tied to the hypothesis and recommendations for future related work are discussed.
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Protocol to evaluate the effectiveness of a virtual-reality-based behavioral intervention in enhancing sensory responses to real-world warning
Habituation to signals that warn of a potential danger in high-risk work environments is a critical causal factor of workplace accidents. Such habituation is hard to measure in a real-world setting, and no existing intervention can effectively curb it. Here, we present a protocol to enhance workers’ sensory responses to frequently encountered warnings at workplaces using a virtual-reality-based behavioral intervention. We describe steps for performing a virtual reality experiment and an electroencephalography (EEG) experiment with human participants.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2017019
- PAR ID:
- 10642155
- Publisher / Repository:
- Elsevier
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- STAR Protocols
- Volume:
- 5
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 2666-1667
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 103262
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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