I developed an intense interest in understanding how Extended Reality devices could be used for, well, “good.” Over the pandemic, as many of us were stuck home, I purchased a couple of the Oculus Quest headsets for my family. Frankly, we were blown away. Perhaps it was just the euphoria of being able to finally do something other than sit while watching the news about a virus taking over the world. We needed something to just help us get up, move around, and have fun. The technology was still considered early, but I was amazed at what it was capable of. (We would play the infamous Beat Saber, competing against each other for high scores! Even better – we were getting cardio exercise in while having fun!) Surely there must be a slew of use cases for this tech? So, I decided to dive in head first. I purchased the Quest 2 as Meta was taking over Oculus. Then the Quest Pro where we worked with colleagues at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine to develop a couple of prototype VR applications where students could enter an OR simulation and learn basic cardiology while in remote areas. My students learned the ORamaVR platform to make developing their medical simulation prototype much easier than it would have been otherwise. I also started teaching in the EXCELerator program for the College of Engineering, where some incoming students come for an immersive experience in prepping for the college experience on campus over the summer before the start of their first semester. I work with a small group of students each summer helping them learn about design and development framework in engineering using VR. Lately the Meta Horizons creation platform has been quite good for that.
I’ve developed a brand new course (offered the first time in Spring 2024) where I teach students about Design and Development in XR using Meta Quest 3 headsets. Students learn about Unity for the first half of the semester by working through a wide range of custom labs and a suite of resources on the Unity Learn platform. The rest of the semester they spend their time going deeper as they implement various interactions and figure out how to create accessible, immersive experiences by working on their own projects. It’s been awesome watching students develop immersive worlds on their own from scratch! I’ve been amazed at what some students have been able to create. It’s a lot to cover in one semester, but the fun of working with these devices and developing in Unity has far outweighed the work, and I think most of the students have agreed.
If you’re interested, reach out to former students of the course, or just send me an e-mail and we can talk!