Fox School of Business experiments with virtual reality learning amid pandemic – Temple News

Gabby Gutierrez (left), a video editor in the Online and Digital Learning Department at Fox School of Business, uses the Oculus headset while Philadelphia freelance reporter Zoe Rosenberg (right) participates in a virtual walkthrough of Fintech Blockchain and Digital Disruption on April 13. | JOSEPH V. LABOLITO / COURTESY

As Divya Pawar sat in her Fintech, Blockchain and Digital Disruption class listening to the lecture, she was able to get a good view of Pollet Walk from her seat. When class ended, she took off her Oculus Quest Virtual Reality headset and continued working at home in her off-campus apartment.

Its like youre in a Temple classroom, like youre sitting with your classmates, said Pawar, a masters of business administration student. It was an amazing experience, it kind of transforms your space.

In March 2020, the Fox School of Business first held Fintech, Blockchain and Digital Disruption, a graduate-level course that is offered once per year and is among the first MBA-level courses to feature a VR format among colleges and universities in the United States. Although the course operates virtually, it incorporates classroom discussions along with virtual visual elements from Temples Main Campus that create an environment comparable to the traditional, on-campus experience.

Students in the class learn about the ways advancements in technology affect financial services and other industries. Planning for the course began in 2018.

To keep students active in their classes, Fox has held only synchronous online classes since Temple primarily transitioned to online learning in March 2020, said Ronald Anderson, the dean of the Fox School of Business. However, he believes that once students get past initial feelings of Zoom fatigue, they enjoy the convenience of online learning despite wanting the traditional college experience even after the pandemic ends.

I think the students want to be on campus, Anderson said. But I think its alright, for some courses, if they take their classes in their apartment or in their dorm room.

Fox partnered with The Glimpse Group, a virtual reality platform company, and designed the virtual experience to resemble a traditional classroom setting.

Students can participate in Fintech, Blockchain and Digital Disruption remotely by wearing Oculus Quest VR headsets. With the headsets on, students sit at virtual seats in a lecture hall, surrounded by avatars of other members of the class, and can talk to one another through the headsets as they get views of Temples Main Campus outside the lecture halls windows.

Pawar enjoys feeling a part of a nearly traditional classroom experience while taking her class at an off-campus apartment.

It kind of bridges the gap that has been missing due to the pandemic, Pawar said. You can see classmates sitting around desks and you can look over and talk to them how youd talk to them in real class.

Students receive the Oculus Headsets in the mail and return them to the Fox School of Business after they complete the course.

Bora Ozkan, a finance professor, teaches Fintech, Blockchain and Digital Disruption and appears in the center of the virtual lecture hall as an avatar where he can see students raise their hands and actively engage with one another.

Despite the class operating virtually, Ozkan made efforts to simulate in-person learning to make the experience more realistic for students, he said.

We have a board in the classroom that we type on as we go along and we have a [teaching assistant] in the classroom, Ozkan said. They take notes and we upload it to Canvas so students actually have a reference about what we talked about in class.

Anderson enjoys how the course allows students to engage as the would in a traditional classroom setting, despite being in different locations.

I could have a kid thats sitting in South Africa and a kid sitting in California, and Im the professor in Philadelphia, and were all in the same classroom, Anderson said.

Anderson believes using VR will allow universities to offer more experimental programs and cut costs for students as they wont have to pay to live on campus. He acknowledged VR courses may have limitations for classes that require less classroom discussion.

I dont think this lends itself to a math course for instance, Anderson said. Because if youre one of these people who learn a lot from note taking exactly, its not going to work very well, unless its a discussion course.

Fintech, Blockchain and Digital Disruption is only offered once per year, but Tom Lennon, Foxs senior video production specialist, hopes to see the course grow going forward as improvements are made to the VR experience, he said.

Lennon, who helped design the course, hopes the technology of VR continues to improve so they can avoid some of the difficulties with sound and avatar placement that have risen in some classes.

This is a model thats working, Lennon said. Theres a lot of nitty-gritty where like, something glitches and now everyones mute button doesnt work.

Lennon likes the flexibility of giving students headsets to learn and feels it is similar to some traditional aspects of borrowing university materials.

Its like renting a textbook, Lennon said. We send it out to the students and if they dont send it back theyre going to get charged.

Adding virtual forms of education might be valuable as students continue adapting to taking classes remotely, Anderson said.

I think that theres a really good chance that somewhere between 30 to 40 percent of our students are going to want a large portion, maybe not 100 percent, but a large portion of their classes in a virtual environment, because of its convenience, he added.

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Fox School of Business experiments with virtual reality learning amid pandemic - Temple News