More great news from the Science & Technology faculty:

Derek Turner, instructor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and member of Open Douglas, has been appointed a BCcampus Educational Technology Fellow for 2019-20. Learn a little more about Derek’s research here:

My research is exploring the affective learning benefits of different types of VR technologies in Earth and Environmental Science courses. Field trips are an important part of Earth Science, in part to better understand the course content, but more importantly to generate an interest and excitement about studying the environment. Unfortunately, not all of our students can come on our trips, for a variety of reasons including work and family commitments. To help accommodate these students, we’ve started providing virtual reality versions of our field trips as a way to improve access to our field sites. There is a growing body of research on the cognitive benefits (e.g., course content) of VR, but little work on how they help build an interest in the subject. My work focuses on evaluating how different types of technology do or do not have any impact on this type of learning to help guide our use of this evolving education technology.

Congratulations, Derek! We all look forward to hearing more as your research progresses with VR field trips.