Learning Innovation and Faculty Engagement

Group Funding
A workshop series was funded by faculty fellows from the 2019 Faculty Learning Community and University of Miami Information Technology. Supported by Academic Technologies and facilitated by Notion Theory, a Magic Leap development partner, this workshop series included professional training and development experience with Magic Leap and XR Design, to inform educational, research and operational initiatives. During the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 semester, a total of 128 members of the UM community (faculty, students and staff) had the opportunity to participate in a multi-day workshop series focused on learning Design Principles for XR and Rapid Prototyping for Magic Leap in Unity.

Individual Funding
Fellows used their awarded educational stipend to fund new XR devices and involve students in their curricula change, such as fund the creation of Magic Leap prototypes developed by students in collaboration with Innovate IT, or hiring teaching assistants to support new course projects.

Hammam Alsafrjalani, Electrical, and Computer Engineering
Fall 2019 / Spring 2020, ECE201, Electrical Circuit Theory
This FLC project created a prototype for a mixed-reality based educational tool. The tool aimed to bridge the gap between theory and practice by enabling theory-based content (e.g., circuit diagrams) to be simulated and illustrated dynamically. The simulation allows the students to observe a response to a change in the circuit dynamically, and the illustration includes a tutorial on the topics related to the circuit. This setup helps the students to scan a circuit diagram and interact with its simulation in real-time, and therefore, understand theoretical concepts in a simulated lab environment all at once. In practice, students can critically compare the circuits and calculations using hand-drawing, CAD, simulation, AR, or a mix of them to perform the circuit analysis. This prototype was designed by Dr. Hammam Alsafrjalani, and implemented in collaboration with Innovate IT. The AR development was conducted by Jinqi Li, a student pursuing a Master’s degree in Interactive Media, and the creation of tutorial content developed by Aaron Valdes, an undergraduate student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. Dr. Alsafrjalani presented his progress at the Teaching and Learning Innovation in STEAM (TALIS) Day 2020, and his early prototype is shared on the UMIT Innovate website.

Diana Arboleda, Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Fall 2019, Mechanics of Solids: Statics (CAE210)
This FLC project involved partnering with Innovate IT to create a Magic-Leap prototype for a classroom activity, designed by undergraduate student Rachel De Paz, Core Programmer, currently a sophomore studying Software Engineering and Interactive Media. During the Spring and Summer 2019 semester, Diana partnered with Rachel, to prototype and visualize concepts including distributed forces and vector mathematics using a Magic Leap headset. Within Mechanics of Solids, or ‘Statics,’ students often struggle with core mathematical foundations around vector components so the first two weeks include a math refresher period, with a large portion spent on vectors. As students often experience difficulty visualizing vectors in 3D, ‘Vectors In Space’ was designed as a mixed reality application that allows the professor and students to draw and manipulate vectors in a real space. Within the Fall 2019 course, the prototype was used for demonstrative activity during class, and students were invited to try it at the Magic Leap lab. The progress of the project was presented at the 2019 Faculty Showcase, and the early prototype was shared on the UMIT Innovate website.

Weizhao Zhao, Biomedical Engineering
Fall 2019, Human Physiology Laboratory (BME 266)
The focus of the FLC project involved incorporating further 3D and AR visualization applications within the Human Physiology Laboratory course, part of the Biomedical Engineering undergraduate program. This course was revised so the instructor and student jointly experienced augmented reality presentations/lectures for the human physiology systems using applications such as “Human Anatomy Atlas” to illustrate course materials, so both instructor and students jointly present/identify targets of interest (TOI).

Larissa Ramos, English Composition
Spring 2019, English Composition I (ENG105)
The focus of this FLC project was the development of a 360 Virtual Reality Tour Assignment using Google's Tour Creator application. The assignment was introduced in a STEM English Composition class within the College of Arts and Sciences. The assignment invited students to create and guide an audience through a step-by-step virtual ‘tour’ of their favorite public space to visit (locally, nationally, or internationally). This required students to research the culture and history of the selected location and develop a digital story-line using 360 images and writing tailored to the needs of a peer audience. Students added audio narration and sounds to accompany the images and descriptions and peer evaluated at least two tours. By watching and evaluating each other’s virtual tours, students learned about each other's cultural backgrounds and benefited from the opportunity to share their cultural history with their peers. For instance, several students chose to showcase historic sites from their home countries, ranging from China, Nepal, Peru, and the U.S. Additionally, this exercise challenged students to think strategically about the relationship between media, text, virtual reality in story-telling, within a global context. Students wrote a two-page reflective paper about the strategic choices they made in constructing their tour, from selecting their site to guiding the peer and public viewer through multiple points within the tour, to engaging and sustaining reader/viewer interest from beginning to end. The assignment facilitate students' development of logical reasoning and coherence in story-telling, cultural intelligence, written and digital rhetoric, and encourages them to develop or enhance a global mindset. This project was presented at the 2019 Faculty Showcase, and the 2020 Annual International Conference for Association for Business Communication.

Jennifer Britton, Psychology
Fall 2019, Cognitive Neuroscience (PSY605)
This FLC project focused on exploring ways to teach neuroanatomy through visualizations tools and virtual, or augmented reality in a graduate-level Cognitive Neuroscience course taught in the Fall 2019 semester. During the Spring 2019 semester, augmented reality ‘experiment-based’ learning exercises were first piloted within the PSY290 Research Methods course, to gather feedback from students about their impact in preparation for the Fall semester. Within PSY605, a series of classroom exercises were introduced to allow students to discover and decompose the cognitive processes that are involved in real-world examples, rather than focus on each neural system in isolation. Using the iPad application (Human Anatomy Atlas) 3D visualizations were used to demonstrate visualizations of human anatomy to clarify concepts to students. One mobile AR exercise was introduced and involved using Google Translate, which capitalizes on voice recognition, word translation and augmented reality, to illustrate principles of language. During another in-class session, in collaboration with the Creative Studio, students explored top-down information processing, decision-making, and social discovery. Students engaged with three ‘stations’ - a VR station, an AR/mixed reality station, and a reality/reflection station in the Faculty Exploratory. As a group, students engaged in a virtual situation that is feared by individuals with anxiety disorders. Following the virtual experiences, they discussed the different systems that are engaged in completing common everyday tasks and explored how these functions are altered by culture and disease (e.g., dual language learners, auditory processing disorder, anxiety disorders).

Victor Milenkovic, Computer Science
Fall 2019, CSC529/629 Introduction to Computer Graphics
The focus of this FLC project involved expanding a virtual reality programming assignment, within course CSC529/629 Introduction to Computer Graphics, that involves illustrating the use of physically-based animations in VR, AR, and spatial computing. In the existing assignment, students program virtual balls bouncing off virtual objects in VR, viewable from a web-browser and with a Google Cardboard or other VR device. In the revised assignment, students continued the VR programming assignment, and also programmed a mobile, augmented reality animation, where they will see the balls bouncing off invisible walls and virtual objects in the real room, and finally, programming for the Magic Leap device, where balls bounce off and disappear behind real objects in the room and bouncing off the real walls. This three-part assignment aimed to introduce students to the various aspects of virtual reality, augmented reality, and spatial computing, and how physically-based animations react to each environment. This project was implemented in the Fall 2019 semester, in partnership with undergraduate and graduate assistants. A one-credit practicum CSC403 course was also created in parallel to CSC529/629 on Magic Leap programming. As a result, one of the students, Dylan Aron, worked on a project in the course CSC411, Computer Science Project Implementation, during Fall 2020, designed and implemented a Magic Leap game "Veggie Samurai."

Brendan Balcerak Jackson and Magdalena Balcerak Jackson, Philosophy
Fall 2019 - Spring 2020: Philosophy of Mind (PHI 344), Metaphysics (PHI 345), Mind and Language (PHI 541/641), and The Phenomenological Tradition (PHI 583/683), Immersive Experience and Virtual Reality (PHI 359)
FLC fellows, Brendan Balcerak Jackson, and Magdalena Balcerak Jackson worked towards the creation of a multimedia classroom and learning space in the Department of Philosophy, including an immersive reality station with virtual reality headsets, experiences, and a gaming computer. Since 2017, Brendan and Magdalena have focused on developing immersive and project-based teaching in several undergraduate and graduate philosophy courses. In particular, they explored ways to increase time and opportunities for philosophy students to engage with virtual and augmented environments in the context of learning about fundamental ideas and arguments in the philosophy of mind, metaphysics, epistemology, and value theory. In Spring 2020, Magdalena and Brendan co-taught a new course, PHI 359 - Immersive Experience and Virtual Reality, about the philosophy and psychology of VR/AR; this course employed immersive and augmenting technologies extensively in classroom activities and assignments. The course, PHI 344 - Philosophy of Mind was also re-designed to include a unit on virtual and augmented reality. Other courses, such as PHI 345 - Metaphysics, PHI 541/641- Mind and Language, and PHI 583/683 - The Phenomenological Tradition, included individual exercises and projects on immersive realities and technologies. The creation of a designated space aimed to support these in-classroom experiences, and invite department colleagues to use this technology to enhance their teaching.

Germane Barnes, Architecture
Fall 2019, Porch Portrayals (ARC 407 / 509 / 510 / 609)
This FLC project focused on the course development of new studio level course assignment, centered around the 'porch' as one of the most recognizable symbols in the history of the traditional American home. Upper-level students conducted extensive research on porch sites located in Miami to contribute to a mixed-media and Magic Leap installation ‘Design Dialogues - Dark Mode’ at the School of Architecture’s Korach Gallery. To investigate the porch and its role as a collective gathering space, students researched structures through compiling and creating images, drawings, analytical diagrams, 3D models, narratives, and a physically fabricated model. In particular, for this project, Gemma Henderson, in partnership Innovate IT's Shing 'Ryan' Cheng, developed a Magic Leap Unity template that allowed architecture students to create augmented reality experiences without needing in-depth technical background knowledge, as described on their website. Students primarily worked on the Magic Leap exhibit during the first half of the semester, in tandem with studio-based activities. This included a series of technical workshops led by Gemma Henderson. Another output of this course involved building upon previous work and submitting revised drawings and a narrative to the Blank Space 2020 Fairytales Competition, with registration funded by the FLC. In addition to presenting the progress of the project at the 2019 Faculty Showcase, Germane presented at the FAMU School of Architecture & Engineering Technology (SAET) on outputs related to this course. A selection of images are shared below.