Abstract:

In this paper, a framework is presented for planning and executing immersive media based projects that has proven to be effective in facilitating, motivating and sustaining cross-disciplinary collaboration between students and faculty from broadly disparate disciplines including design, sciences, engineer and vocational education. Three supporting case studies are presented as example implementations of the framework, each of which produced a lasting immersive media artifact upon completion. Each case study produced a different form immersive media, stereoscopic 360° instructional video, computer animated fulldome immersive projection and fully interactive simulation, and each case resulted in collaboration between varying, intercollegiate disciplines and were executed over a spectrum of time frames, demonstrating the broad scalability and applicability of the framework.

Recent work [1] has shown that development immersive media can be used effectively to emphasize design as a multidisciplinary activity, but focused on implementation solely within design based programs such as industrial design, architecture, and interior architecture. The benefits of broader interdisciplinary work have been shown in [2], where the authors report on the advantages of cross-disciplinary education within engineering education, with attention given to integration of non-engineering participants within collaborative teams.

The framework presented in this paper is designed to identify high value applications of immersive media in intercollegiate disciplines traditionally unrelated to media or design, and facilitate the development of a multidisciplinary, collaborative curriculum that capitalizes on the innate enthusiasm created by the novelty of immersive media.

Case studies presented include:
(a) a vocational orientation and safety practices stereoscopic 360° video collaborative produced within a time from of a few weeks through collaboration between faculty and students in a design college, and the staff of the metal working machine shop at a college of engineering;
(b) an immersive educational documentary centering on newly discovered dinosaur genus and species, produced through collaboration between students and faculty from colleges of design, college of arts & sciences and the Academy of Natural Sciences;
(c) a fully interactive virtual reality ride produced over an academic year through collaboration between students and faculty in animation, game design, industrial design, computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and VR & Immersive Media.

References:
[1] Camba J.D., Soler J.L., Contero M. (2017) Immersive Visualization Technologies to Facilitate Multidisciplinary Design Education. In: Zaphiris P., Ioannou A. (eds) Learning and Collaboration Technologies. Novel Learning Ecosystems. LCT 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 10295. Springer, Cham
[2] Borrego, M. and Newswander, L. K. (2008), Characteristics of Successful Cross‐disciplinary Engineering Education Collaborations. Journal of Engineering Education, 97: 123-134. doi:10.1002/j.2168-9830.2008.tb00962.x

Keywords:

Virtual Reality, Immersive Media, Multidisciplinary, Collaboration.