FEVAR Group Develops Interest in Virtual and Augmented Reality

by Cliff Alexander, UTO Creative + Communications Digital Storyteller

ASU’s Future of Education for Virtual and Augmented Reality (FEVAR) group was recently visited by UTO’s Heather Haseley and Dan Munnerley, co-directors of the Learning Futures Collaboratory (LFC), where they presented on the LFC’s exciting new developments.

FEVAR brings together ASU community members with a common interest in the potential for enhancing education and training through Virtual and Augmented Reality, collectively called Extended Reality -- or XR. The group connects participants with new opportunities, shares knowledge and serves to create transdisciplinary partnerships in research. Chair Mina Johnson-Glenberg began with an introduction connecting staff, students, faculty and business leaders of the Arizona community with big XR ideas.

Haseley and Munnerley then detailed the LFC’s methodology. Most important is the concept of “Design to Scale,” a set of techniques to apply to projects in collaboration with other members of the department of UTO and ASU at large. They also emphasized the importance of 3D worlds and XR in interpreting data and information for the next generation and beyond.

Following Haseley and Munnerley, Auryan Ratliff, Design Ops Strategist for EdPlus, and Johnson-Glenberg, detailed an ASU repository for all XR resources and the integration of XR technologies into the ASU 101 course, respectively. The FEVAR meet-up concluded with a Q&A session that addressed the standardization and knowledge of 3D programs like Unity, Cinema 4D and Maya.