Cross-Location and Cross-Disciplinary Collaborative Prototyping Using Virtual Reality in Higher Education
Fei Richard Yu, Md. Saifuddin Khalid · 2019
The integration of virtual reality (VR) in education, particularly for collaborative activities and feedback, is recently trending with the continuous development of technologies. So, this paper reports a pilot study as part of an ongoing E-learning project to address the questions: 1. how can tertiary education design courses adopt VR systems in student projects in collaboration with external organizations, and 2. what are the perceptions of the students and external organization regarding the use of VR systems for cross-discipline and cross-location collaborative prototyping? The process of VR use for the learning activities are grouped into four categories: 1) introduction of basic features of VR tools (two hours), 2) self-learning/experiencing the tools — HTC Vive headsets with Masterpiece VR, SculptrVR, Google Blocks, and Sketchbox (15-20 hours), 3) co-creating design objects by adopting the selected VR tools — ScuptrVR and Google Blocks (two to four hours), and 4) presentation and get feedback in live VR space — Sketchbox with import models (2X30 min). The students responded that, for the collaborated project with a company based in another city, the VR setup is a great tool for demonstrating 3D models of the designed objects. It shows the detailed view of a product or a concept, it creates useful space for creativity, and it saves time. On the contrary, the technology is still in the early phase for the modelling purpose, still too cartoonish, lacks functions for engineering design, and gives a dizzy feeling. This study involved collocated student teams of engineers and future study should include students of different study programs and campuses working for the same client as part their respective courses.