VR @ Brown 2021

Laila Gamaleldin, April 2021

Background

As part of my second project, I conducted a survey to get a general sense of VR knowledge, interest, and use on campus. Both faculty members and students were sent the survey. 


Methods

The survey can be found here. There are slightly separate tracks for faculty and students, but the difference in questions is largely contextual (e.g. 'have you ever taken a VR class' vs. 'have you ever taught a VR class'). The survey was advertised on Today@Brown as well as on social media and to several classes, departmental groups, and research labs. A full spreadsheet of where the survey was sent out can be found here.

In total, 30 people filled the survey out. 21 were students and 9 were faculty members.


Results

Student Results:


Average: 4, Median: 4

Average: 3.86, Median: 4

Note: participants were given the option to pick multiple choices here. This question was left optional so that only those who hadn't been would answer it. Due to technical errors, this question contains answers from 3 faculty members.

Note: participants were given the option to pick multiple choices here. This question was left optional so that only those who hadn't been would answer it. Due to technical errors, this question contains answers from 3 faculty members.

Courses listed by survey responders included:

None of the respondents used VR collaboratively or for data visualization in their classes.

Average: 3.71, Median: 4

Project and Class Ideas pitched by respondents:


Faculty Results:

Departments Represented:

Average: 4.11 , Median: 4

Average: 3.56 , Median: 4

Top reasons for not having gone to the YURT included:

Top reasons for not having gone to the CAVE included:

Use cases:

Note: due to a technical error, only 3 of the faculty participants were able to reach this question

Use cases:

Use cases:

The one respondent who had used VR collaboratively wrote "Used Yurt with Laidlaw and his students, as well as remote colleagues by video"

The one respondent who used VR for data visualization wrote that they made "Discrete element method (DEM) simulations with animated anatomical models"

Potential VR use cases listed by faculty respondents included:

Conclusion/Takeaways

Some key takeaways included:


One thing to note with these numbers and conclusions is that the number of respondents (21 students and 9 faculty members) represented only a tiny sliver of the Brown population. Although respondents come from a wide variety of backgrounds on campus, their experiences are still not representative of the Brown population at large. Only some Departmental Undergraduate groups dispersed the surveys, and so students from those departments were more likely to be represented in the sample. The same goes for the classes who gave it out. Members of those classes share some academic interests based on their being in the same course. Finally, it's likely that those who opted into taking the survey did so due to some prior interest or experience with VR, making it possible that the VR interest and experience captured by the survey is higher than that of the general Brown population.