Collaborative Research: Advancing Ocean Literacy through Immersive Virtual Reality

作为在非正式环境中加强学习的总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划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项新兴技术--使用头盔显示器(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理心。最近在设计上的进步导致了头盔显示器的出现，这种头盔可以提供真实感和身临其境的体验，让参与者处于水下或其他偏远环境中。IVR可以为许多人提供进入这些环境的虚拟通道，包括残疾人、居住在沿海地区以外的人或由于其他原因而无法进入的人(例如，低收入家庭、服务不足/代表不足的社区、未受潜水训练的人)。该项目将开发一部高质量的360度水下电影，其中包括现场动作镜头、动画和互动元素。IVR体验将带领参与者体验一次身临其境的太平洋珊瑚礁水下之旅，使用逼真的可视化、叙事和引人入胜的故事，让参与者参与学习珊瑚礁的生态和生物学，以及气候变化和人类干扰对海洋生态系统的影响。除了IVR海洋之旅，该项目还将整合大规模珊瑚产卵期间在珊瑚礁上的互动功能，这是一种年度自然现象，珊瑚礁通过这种现象补充它们的种群。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，并将有能力改变珊瑚恢复的速度，并了解气温上升如何阻碍珊瑚恢复。虽然已经对早期桌面版本的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、电影节和会议以及非正式学习环境的在线平台上分享。该项目解决了对IVR设备的影响进行研究的必要性，因为IVR设备在家庭和其他非正式和正式环境中变得更加负担得起和更广泛地使用。很少有研究研究设计元素如何影响IVR中的用户，在IVR中，更多的沉浸会影响刺激感知和认知加工。这项研究将评估IVR体验对参与者海洋素养(改编自现有海洋素养调查项目)、环境同理心/存在感(自然主义观察和体验后访谈)和自我效能感(调查前、访谈后访谈)的学习启示和影响。此外，该项目将研究分段(即连续体验与间歇体验)、生成性学习任务(动手体验和IVR期间的互动)以及IVR体验中讲述者的性别如何支持关于海洋环境的学习。研究人员将收集就读于以少数民族学生为主的高中的学生的数据。研究成果将通过同行评议的出版物、会议报告以及面向教育工作者和设计师的出版物广泛分享。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.