ClassroomVR Madness
Application design that offers interactivity outside of the desktop and mobile computing paradigm
OVERVIEW
GOAL: Design an interactive system which should solve an issue traditional setting of a classroom has.
ISSUE: Get distractions during lecture. Being Late to class.
MY TEAM
Wei Li
Suzy Kong
Susan Yang
Gomez Cazares
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MY ROLE
Actor
UX Designer
UX Researcher
Video Editor
METHODS
Brainstorm & Sketching
Cultural Probe
User Interview
Design Ethnography​
THE DATE
Mar. 2017 - Apr. 2017
DESIGN PROCESS
BRAINSTORM & SKETCHING
To gather the idea from teammates and get a better understanding of traditional classroom setting, we initially mapped out our idea on the whiteboard via post-it notes to brainstorm.
Then we observed several physical environments during lecture. We mainly observed the actions of the students and the professor using a fly-on-the-wall approach and gathered further data from interviews of informants in the environment.
FLY-ON-THE-WALL OBSERVATION
Fig. Screenshots of field notes
We found out the main causes of students skipping the lecture and get distracted are:
The use of cellphone and laptop from other students
Uncomfortable sitting
Students' lower learning efficiency
The human factors within this problem space are crucial.
While observing, we attempted to derive conclusion -
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Why behave the certain ways, what causes the pain
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What activities are necessary to help them stay concentrated;
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What kind of teaching style from professors is beneficial to facilitate students to learn?
We also found out: At the beginning of the class, they are energetic as they demonstrate high participation.
While the lecture proceeds to cover dull and dry materials, around 15% of students got distracted. Some of their neighbors get annoyed but because of the classroom settings and cultural norm, they do not try to interfere with it.
IDEATION
Based on the observations, we found out having an immersive classroom experience would reduce distractions. Allowing students to interact with the lecture would promote an active learning experience rather than the traditional passive experience. Using a VR headset to create our immersive experience would greatly benefit the students and make the experience more enjoyable.
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We sketched out three scenarios:
This demonstrates one of our design ideas: Have a virtual reality classroom setting which students do not have to physically be there. They can wear a VR glass to see what professor is teaching.
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KEY FEATURE:
Lecture recording.
Volume control.
Group activities:
FEATURE DESIGN
VOICE CONTROL
You can control the volume of lecturer anytime
LECTURE RECORDING
You can record the lecture if you accidentally miss it. But the amount of recording is limited.c
GROUP ACTIVITIES
Users can communicate with each other virtually.
REMOTE LEARNING
You don't have to physically present in lecture. All the learning materials will be displayed through the VR glasses.
To demonstrate the advantages of classroomVR, we also made a video:
REFLECTION
Design ethnography provides us a with the way to learn about people in their environments which they live, work, and interact. The difficult part of it is observing people in order to understand their intention without being obvious. Be empathetic is essential. Since it is a professional research method, initially collecting data from classmates within the problem space is difficult. Especially as a design ethnographer, “to be in one’s head” is said to be an essential thinking strategy to make sure we are always obtaining raw information from subjects and transform them into useful knowledge. We were surprised to notice how people’s actions can influence others in the same setting and how powerful Cultural Norms can be.
Fly-on-the-wall is a very useful observation because it can capture the holistic experience without letting the targets to know we are observing them so they might behave as they normally do instead of following the cultural trend by doing things they do not normally behave to make themselves “look right”. I also believe the interviews help us get a better and more in-depth understanding of the current issue traditional classroom setting is facing.