Communication professor Jeremy Bailenson has formatted his class COMM 166/266: “Virtual People” to take place in virtual reality (VR) after 20 years of teaching the subject and seeing the technology develop. It is the first class set entirely in VR in Stanford’s history.
“We live in a time where virtual reality is rapidly expanding its roles in how we work, play and communicate,” said music professor Ge Wang when he introduced Bailenson and first-year communication Ph.D. student Cyan DeVeaux as this month’s presenters at the Art and Tech Salon, a speaker series devoted to bringing together students and professors from across campus disciplines.
When planning the class, Bailenson took a gamble on whether VR software and technology would be advanced enough in time for him to teach it as a summer course. The software the class ended up using, ENGAGE, became ready in late May, just in time to run the course in the Summer. ENGAGE is a virtual meeting platform that provides tools for students and teachers to build and interact in virtual environments.
... VR allows people to imagine the impossible, adding that the teaching team tried to incorporate that tenet into the curriculum. ...
... Class sessions were also limited to 30 minutes to avoid simulator sickness, a subset of motion sickness that can be caused by VR devices. ...
To assess when VR is the appropriate medium to use as a teaching tool, ... “Dangerous, Impossible, Counterproductive and Expensive” (D.I.C.E.).
See the full story here: https://www.wired.com/story/ex-googler-timnit-gebru-starts-ai-research-center/