[Defense] A Framework for Measuring and Improving VR Competency
Thursday, July 20, 2023
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
In
Partial
Fulfillment
of
the
Requirements
for
the
Degree
of
Doctor
of
Philosophy
Brian
Holtkamp
will
defend
his
dissertation
A
Framework
for
Measuring
and
Improving
VR
Competency
Abstract
As Virtual Reality (VR) continues to become a more accessible and utilized medium for research, training, and education, subjects who are not familiar with VR hardware and software must learn how to properly operate VR in order to engage with the educational material, exhibit the training experiences, and provide usable data for researchers. A subjects鈥 performance can potentially be affected by their level of familiarity, experience, and expertise with VR and this impact could appear in the analysis and research based on those performances. Additionally, with a large variety of hardware and human-computer interaction patterns in use across all VR software, some users may be unfamiliar with certain patterns or techniques and will have to be taught how to use them effectively regardless of their experience levels. This work is proposing and attempting to construct a framework of which to identify, measure, and attempt to improve 鈥淰R Competency鈥, the ability for a person to understand and utilize a VR experience successfully. The VR competency framework focuses on three aspects of a VR experience: the hardware, the interactions, and the instructions. The hardware aspect is focused on how best to introduce a subject to the hardware and its capabilities. The interactions aspect is focused on teaching the subjects what they can do within the VR experience. The instructions aspect is focused on how to communicate goals to the subject to maximize the impact of the experience. The goal of the VR competency framework is to provide people designing VR experiences with the ability to determine how a subject is performing within a VR experience, techniques to determine what aspects of the experience are posing difficulties towards the experience鈥檚 objectives, and best practices for introducing VR to inexperienced subjects. This dissertation will define the VR competency framework, explore studies and experiments that provide support for the VR competency framework and it鈥檚 primary aspects, and propose future work that would provide evidence and best practices for developers who are producing VR experiences.
Thursday,
July
20,
2023
3:00PM
-
5:00PM
PGH
550
Faculty Advisors - Dr. Jaspal Subhlok and Dr. Chang Yun
Faculty, students and the general public are invited.
