Browsing by Author "Gracey, Matthew"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Immersive Virtual Environments for University Education: Views from the Classroom
    Bowman, Douglas A.; Gracey, Matthew; Lucas, John F.; Setareh, Mehdi; Varadarajan, Srinidhi (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2003)
    Education has long been touted as an important application area for immersive virtual environments (VEs). VEs can allow students to visualize and interact with complex three-dimensional (3D) structures, perform virtual experiments,#157; view scenes with natural head and body movements, and experience environments that would be otherwise inaccessible because of distance (the surface of the Moon), scale (a complex molecule), or danger (a sunken ship). Many researchers have explored the use of VEs for education [1, 2], with some degree of success. However, few VE systems have been deployed for actual classroom use, and little is known about effective methods for employing VEs in real-world settings (the work of Johnson et al. is a notable exception [4]). In this paper, we describe three VE applications developed to teach university students concepts in the areas of computer graphics, building structures, and computer networking, and discuss our experience in using them as integral parts of appropriate classes at Virginia Tech. We differ from Johnson et al. in our focus on postsecondary education and in our use of VEs as tools within a traditional lecture-based class. We present our observations of what worked and what did not, and offer guidelines for others wishing to incorporate VEs into the classroom.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Using Virtual Environments in the Teaching of Computer Graphics
    Bowman, Douglas A.; Chennupati, Balaprasuna; Gracey, Matthew; Pinho, Marcio S.; Wheeler, Kristin J. (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2003)
    Education has long been touted as an appropriate application area for immersive virtual environments (VEs), but few immersive applications have actually been used in the classroom, and even fewer have been compared empirically with other teaching methods. This paper presents VENTS, a novel immersive VE application intended to teach the concept of the three-dimensional (3D) normalizing transformation in an undergraduate computer graphics class. VENTS was developed based on key principles for the use of VEs in education, systematically evaluated for usability, and refined based on the results of this evaluation. Students in a university course used VENTS, and their learning was compared to that of other students who either attended a lecture on the topic or used a 3D desktop application covering the same material. The results of pre- and post-tests showed a larger percent increase in test score for the VE group than the desktop or lecture groups, although these differences are not statistically significant.