Collaborative Research: Advancing Ocean Literacy through Immersive Virtual Reality

作为加强非正式环境学习总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）项目为各种环境中使用的创新资源提供资金。该项目将开发和研究一种新兴技术，即使用头戴式显示器（hmd）的沉浸式虚拟现实（IVR），如何提高海洋素养，并产生对环境问题的同情。最近的设计进步使得头戴式显示器能够提供发自内心的真实和身临其境的体验，将参与者置于水下或其他远程环境中。IVR可以为许多人提供对这些环境的虚拟访问，包括残疾人，远离沿海地区的人，或因其他原因无法访问的人（例如，低收入家庭，服务不足/代表性不足的社区，未受过潜水训练的人）。该项目将开发一个高质量的360度水下电影，包括实景镜头、动画和互动元素。IVR体验将带领参与者进行太平洋珊瑚礁的沉浸式水下之旅，使用逼真的可视化，叙事和引人入胜的故事，让参与者了解珊瑚礁的生态学和生物学，以及气候变化和人为干扰对海洋生态系统的影响。除了IVR海洋之旅外，该项目还将整合珊瑚产卵期间在珊瑚礁上的互动功能，这是一种每年一次的自然现象，珊瑚礁通过这种自然现象来补充其种群。通过手持控制器，参与者将能够在水中“游泳”，观看退化的珊瑚礁恢复和生长，并有能力改变珊瑚恢复的速度，并了解温度升高如何阻碍珊瑚恢复。虽然已经对早期的桌面版IVR进行了研究，但IVR对学习的潜在影响仍不清楚。研究结果将有助于指导IVR的开发，用于非正式的STEM环境，如水族馆、动物园、科学博物馆等。IVR体验将在家庭观看的在线平台、电影节和会议以及非正式学习环境中分享。该项目解决了IVR设备的影响研究需求，因为它变得更加经济实惠，并在家庭和其他非正式和正式环境中更广泛地使用。很少有研究调查设计元素如何在IVR中影响用户，其中增加的沉浸感影响刺激感知和认知处理。本研究将评估IVR体验对参与者海洋素养（改编现有海洋素养调查中的项目）、环境同理心/存在感（自然观察和体验后访谈）和感知自我效能感（前后调查、访谈后访谈）的学习启示和影响。此外，该项目还将研究分段（即连续体验与间歇体验）、生成式学习任务（在IVR中动手体验和互动）以及IVR体验中叙述者的性别如何支持对海洋环境的学习。研究人员将收集以少数民族学生为主的高中学生的数据。研究成果将通过同行评审的出版物、会议报告以及教育工作者和设计师的出版物广泛分享。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative resources for use in a variety of settings. The project will develop and research how an emerging technology, immersive virtual reality (IVR) using head mounted displays (HMDs), can enhance ocean literacy and generate empathy towards environmental issues. Recent advances in design have resulted in HMDs that provide viscerally realistic and immersive experiences that situate participants in underwater or other remote environments. IVR can provide many people with virtual access to these environments, including persons with disabilities, people living away from coastal areas, or those who lack access for other reasons (e.g., low-income families, underserved/underrepresented communities, persons untrained in diving). The project will develop a high quality 360-degree underwater film that includes live action footage, animation, and interactive elements. The IVR experience will take the participant through an immersive underwater journey of a Pacific reef, using realistic visualizations, narrative, and a compelling story to engage participants in learning the ecology and biology of coral reefs, as well as the impacts of climate change and human disturbances on ocean ecosystems. In addition to the IVR ocean journey, the project will integrate interactive functionality of being on a reef during mass coral spawning, an annual natural phenomenon through which coral reefs replenish their populations. With hand-held controllers, participants will be able to "swim" through the water, watch the degraded reef recover and grow and will have the ability to change the rate of coral recovery and learn how increases in temperature impede coral recovery. While research has been conducted on early, desk-top versions of IVR, the potential impact of IVR on learning is still unclear. The research findings will help guide the development of IVR for use in informal STEM environments such as aquariums, zoos, science museums, and others. The IVR experience will be shared on online platforms for home viewing, at film festivals and conferences, and in informal learning environments.The project addresses the need for research on the impacts of IVR devices as it become more affordable and more widely used at home and in other informal and formal environments. Few studies have investigated how design elements impact the user in IVR, in which the increased immersion affects the stimuli perception and cognitive processing. The research will assess the learning affordances and impacts of the IVR experience on participant ocean literacy (adapting items from an existing ocean literacy survey), environmental empathy/feelings of presence (naturalistic observations and post-experience interviews), and perceived self-efficacy (pre-post survey, post-interview interviews). In addition, the project will research how segmentation (i.e., a continuous experience vs. an experience with breaks), generative learning tasks (hands-on experiences and interactive during IVR), and gender of the narrator in an IVR experience supports learning about ocean environments. Researchers will collect data from students attending high schools with predominantly minority student enrollments. Research findings will be widely shared through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, and publications for educators and designers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.