Developing PAN-Lassonde Inclusive, Immersive, Accessible, and Affordable Learning Environments for Engineering Education using Augmented/Virtual Reality, Gamification, & Educational Comics

Description

There are two significant challenges in modern engineering education: [1] Learning complex engineering concepts in varying fields of engineering, require hands-on experience as well as access to sophisticated equipment. [2] On the other hand, transferable, humanistic, and future-ready skills, such as emotional intelligence and ethical leadership, are essential for students’ success, thriving, and contribution. This PAN-Lassonde research program, will develop novel pedagogies inspired by visual arts and practices called Visual Verbal Integrated (VIVID) Storytelling and emerging Augmented/Virtual Reality (called Extended Reality (XR)) and Gaming technologies to solve these two challenges in education.

We will develop a large library of learning artifacts called VIVID Educational XR activities, Games, and Comics that would enable a diverse array of approachable, accessible, and inclusive experiential learning activities. This helps students to experience their impacts on solving important societal issues within immersive way, thereby facilitating connection between UN SDGs and their technical and humanistic learnings.