Description of a learning scenario
I took a Virtual Reality production course in my senior year of college. The course was set up to teach students how to develop VR application on the Windows Mixed Reality platform using Unity3D and Visual Studio on the Samsung Odyssey. We had weekly meetings in the classroom to have lectures about development basics. The course explored the progress of designing, creating, testing, and distributing interactive virtual reality content. There were mainly two types of assignment for the class. Every week, each student had individual challenges as formative assignments. Students were also expected to complete a Capstone VR project in teams at the end of the semester.
Project-based learning in the course
The course offered a project-based learning experience. Project-based learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge (LDX 100X, May 2017). In this course, students should work on the Capstone VR project throughout the whole semester. The class was divided into several teams. Each team needs to complete a deliverable VR application and present it on a research fair and XR showcase by the end of the course. By completing the project, students could apply the knowledge they’ve learned in the class. However, the class would not cover all of the information to achieve the final project. Specifically, the class would not teach 3D modeling or animation, or 360 video production. Furthermore, the project was extra challenging to students since only a few of them had prior experience of game developing. Therefore, they had the opportunity to acquire new skills and knowledge during the completion of the project in order to meet the goals of the project.
Authentic assessment
The course was a good example of applying authentic assessment. The instructor evaluated students through multiple forms of performance measurement reflecting the student’s learning, achievement, motivation and attitudes on class activities. In the formative assessment approaches, every unexcused absence would result in a reduction from daily performance grade. Every month, each student was required to submit an individual progress check to the instructor embracing self-assessment, teammate evaluation, and project progress report. On the other hand, the semester exam and group VR project played critical roles in summative assessment. The final semester exam ought to test students’ understanding of the contents from lectures. More importantly, the instructor graded the VR Capstone project regarding a diverse array of criteria. It included creativity, the quality of scripting, sounds design, and game mechanics, etc. The final grade was calculate based on all of the above measurements. In this way, the instructor could objectively determine the level of mastery of students in an authentic way.
The grading rubric of the course as follows:
Individual challenge 15%
Individual progress check 15%
Research fair presentation 5%
XR showcase presentation 5%
Semester exam 20%
Group VR project 20%
Attendance 20%
Reference
LDX 100X. (May 10, 2017). Project Based Learning. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/3CRbSR-vrH0
