Treffer: Innovative VR-based Research to develop Intuitive Human Computer Interaction.

This paper explains the design of a prototype desktop and augmented Virtual Reality (VR) framework as a medium to deliver instructional materials to the students in an introductory computer animation course. To be of use to other instructors or researchers interested in implementing a similar framework like this, the paper provides information on the hardware, software, and the concept inventory components of this framework. This framework was developed as part of a Teaching Innovation Grant at a Midwestern University to propose some cost-effective and innovative instructional frameworks to engage and stimulate students. This paper is an extended version of the paper presented at the CoED division of the ASEE conference and it presents VR modules and assessments with some modified techniques to the earlier version presented at the annual conference. This paper also shows the relevance of the methods used in the context of other STEM curriculum in addition to graphics and modeling courses. PC-based Desktop VR has been chosen as a medium for this study due to the ease-of-access and affordability; this framework can be visualized and accessed with the available computers in PC labs available on university campuses. Besides modeling and animation, various STEM concepts including manufacturing education, nanotechnology, chemistry, and biology are presented in an interactive manner on a desktop display. This framework allows the users to interact with the objects on the display not only via the standard mouse and keyboard, but also using multiple forms of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) such as Touchscreen, Touchpad, and 3D Mouse. Hence, the modules were developed from scratch for access via regular desktop PCs. As the author has been teaching this course for many years now, this framework has been designed with due consideration to structure of the course, 'Introduction to Animation'. Finally, the framework has been tested on a range of VR media to check its accessibility. On the whole, this proposed framework can be used to not only teach basic modeling and animation concepts such as spatial coordinates, coordinate systems, transformation, and parametric curves, but also to teach basic graphics programming concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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