diVRsity (CVRriculum) program: embedding Virtual Reality as an experiential education medium to teach empathy

Description

Project Year 1: diversity program: embedding Virtual Reality as an experiential education medium to teach empathy

The diVRsity Program focuses on building essential human skills, such as empathy, by raising awareness about important diversity issues, like accessibility. This human-powered, technology-enabled program equips students and educators with the tools they need to recognize universal design issues across campus and capture these environments in 360 Virtual Reality (VR). Users will then reflect on the current state of the environment and make suggestions as to how the form, function, and feel can be adapted to better address the needs of a diverse student body. This crowd-sourced content will contribute to a dynamic e-library of experiences that can be accessed remotely via a website, or for full immersiveness using VR head-mounted-displays. Training to use the technology can be stand-alone or incorporated into existing courses and adapted to suit the context of various programs from Nursing to Architecture, with the goal of growing the program to other universities and communities.

Project Year 2: CVRiculum program: embedding Virtual Reality as an experiential education medium to teach empathy

This project involves developing the CVRriculum elibrary which houses the films and scenarios aligned with the experiences that expose our need for empathy and help deepen emotional intelligence. The films and scenarios can be accessed remotely on the web, or for full immersiveness using VR head-mounted-displays; can be stand-alone or incorporated into existing courses and adapted to suit the context of various programs from Nursing to Architecture.

Moreover, the eLibrary houses a toolkit outlining how to introduce the CVRriculum program into courses and various teaching contexts to be accessed via a publicly available website.