Tag: Storytelling

  • The Day I Almost Invented Roof Sledding

    The Day I Almost Invented Roof Sledding

     


    Photo by chris robert on Unsplash 

    When you are the youngest of 5 kids and you set about inventing something new on your property, it’s pretty hard because there are 4 people above you that have flown, broke, set on fire, eaten, gassed up, duct taped, and welded so many things already that the range of possible remaining options is quite low.

    I was seeking fresh snow to land in, as sledders do, and smooth surfaces upon which to sled upon, as sledders do, one particularly snowy day as I headed out alone towards the tall snow banks Dad had plowed up in the backyard. 

    First things first, actual physical sleds are for weenies*. If you MUST sit on something to sled, you can, but true sledders just put their butt down and go for it.  Hence the seeking of smooth surfaces, yes?  This is key for this story. Ideally, you want a nice smooth downhill trail with a big poof of snow at the bottom a nice impact absorbing end. The first few runs down some snowbanks is okay but…

    Then I noticed that the snowbanks went all the way up to the edge of the wood shed….which attached with only one small climb to the garage.  Altitude. I could get altitude.

    Up I climbed.

    First up on the wood shed roof. It is a metal roof so it was slippery but no, this won’t do. It was far too shallow.  No sliding here at all. Bah!  Humbug!  But over there, the part of the roof that went over Dad’s metal shop…the roof was very steep there and metal.  Almost a nice 45 degree angle and there was a snow bank below it (even though I could barely see it from up here).  Oh ho!

    Here we are! Now we are ON TO SOMETHING!!  I’m going to slide down THIS and right into that snowbank and I’m going to invent roof sledding. This is going to be so cool. šŸ˜Ž

    You know. My plan would have worked.

    It started great.  I carefully placed each leg over the ridge of the roof, together, aiming down. I used all my arm strength to hold on to the ridge (gravity was going to be GREAT!)  I sat up straight and LET GO!

    WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!  

    3 seconds of pure fun!

    Roof sledding worked!

    Then, before I knew what happened (I had to reconstruct the events afterwards) I was –and pardon the vulgarity but this phrase truly fits the occasion — ass over teakettle — as I was flung forward off the roof right as I reached the edge. But I didn’t go down. I went around and instead ended up dangling off the roof, head a couple of inches above the snow bank, arms flailing.  

    I distinctly remember asking myself where my feet and legs were. My feet had gone under the roof eves, tucked up there quite nicely. I didn’t know they would fit there. Huh. Interesting.

    My legs were the active agent here. Or should I say, my snow pants. My snow pants and one roof nail head.  My legs appeared to be around here somewhere but bent.

    One roof nail head had snagged my snow pants in the back right leg thigh. My momentum was enough that that nail head jammed my snow pants into a full stop and that’s why I flung forward. My legs had stopped going off the roof and I had flipped over 250 degrees from my original position and I was being held—dangling off the roof now– with no one around– by a nail head only about 1/3 an inch wide.  The rip kept going…

    rip

    rip

    rip

    until I finally struggled enough, twisting with my free leg to land on the side of my face in the snowbank. 

    I stood up, panting, snow packed now down my coat from the neck. It wasn’t fluffy.

    I was shocked. I thought I was bleeding and the only thing stopping me from bleeding was the cold.

    I ran back inside to examine what must be a gash in my leg (and not admitting my sled/roof debacle).

    I discovered my jeans were fine, my leg was fine. My snow pants only needed a 2 inch “L” shaped sewing repair; one tiny scar of my momentous almost discovery. I went back to look at the roof closely and discovered that there were nails all down the roof (ahem, that’s what holds roofs on Heather) and I had not snagged on any of them until that particularly perfectly timed one right before the edge.  

    By the way, the roof nail? It was fine. Full recovery. I couldn’t see the nail heads before I slid because…of course, they were covered in snow.

     

    Sigh, I never slid off the roof again.

    But hey, I almost, almost invented roof sledding.

    *Yes, I’ve been known to sled with a real sled.  The story just sounds better if I make it seem like I was brave enough to sled without one. I think truly I was just messing around. I was a kid!

    After I wrote this I found evidence, I mean blackmail, I mean a photo of proof of sledding without sleds and sledding with sleds.  Take your pick.

    (My goofy brothers)

    (Me)

  • I taught one of Earthā€™s first courses with the Oculus Quest 2.

    I taught one of Earthā€™s first courses with the Oculus Quest 2.

     

    Oculus Quest 2 VR headset, Photo by Remy Gieling on Unsplash

     

    Here’s how that went.

    First, I canā€™t provide a reference that this course, Introduction to Virtual Reality out of the Unity College XR Innovation Lab, was the first, but given:

    1. The timing: The Oculus Quest 2 was introduced on September 16 and shipped out on October 13, 2020.
      The Oculus Quest 2 is an upgrade of the original Oculus Quest. I used
      the original Quest during course development and had access to a Quest 2
      during the actual course run. As course development progressed, I did
      not know definitively that the Quest 2 would be the selected headset
      until late in the process. 
    2. The opportunity:
      College semesters tend to most often be trimesters (3 per year). The
      Quest 2 launched mid-autumn semester. The first opportunity to start a
      course, then, would be winter/spring semester starting January 2021. My
      5-week course squeaked in there between February 22 and March 28, 2021. Therefore, it is fair to say this course was one of the first because there really wasnā€™t much opportunity for other courses to launch and run before this one. 

    I
    do not write about the learners in any identifiable way. I write this
    article from the perspective of the designer and instructor and I write
    it for other potential virtual reality (VR) headset-using instructors.

    Iā€™m going to call the VR experiences (games) apps since that term is current and understandable. 

    First,
    I will explain the course design and decisions. Next, I will name the
    apps used. Finally, Iā€™ll explain the use of a device management (DM)
    system.

    Course Design

    In
    the design and development of this course, I played the role of the
    Subject Matter Expert (SME) and instructor introducing first and second
    year college learners to virtual reality. Interestingly, I am an
    Instructional Designer by degree and interest, so this was a bit meta
    for me; designing a course on design. However, I was assigned a Senior
    Instructional Designer and they had a process, timeline, and confidence
    in Canvas. We got along fabulously and we finished ~80 hours of development on time. 

    We did a backwards by design
    approach (don’t know what that is? Visit my honored friend Dr. Luke
    Hobson’s Instruction Design Institute course) to building these pieces:

    1. Designed the final project.
    2. Cut the project into chunks with an assignment due each week.
    3. Wrote the weekly lessons.
    4. Finalized the assignments and discussion prompts.
    5. Completed learning resources (intro videos, handouts, examples).

    I
    also worked with the person responsible for advocating for this new
    course to the college. They oversaw the place of this course within the
    collegeā€™s mission and programs. We worked on selecting the apps that
    would be preloaded on the headsets. Also, they played the role of
    teacher assistant in the course for tech support questions and they ran
    the entire DM process.

    We started gathering ideas of which apps we
    would include. Since we didnā€™t know which headset (or even if we would
    have a headset requirement) we started with the ā€˜freeā€™, ā€˜easy-to-accessā€™
    VR apps first. I came in with a good background in 2D VR choices and
    they had a few ideas from 3D VR choices. Both of us made sure to include
    a wide range of apps as we wanted the course to appeal to many
    different college majors. We scoped out apps ranging in feel (not too
    many first person shooters) and content (apps that were related to fun
    or work).

    Why teach VR design?

    Why is there value in teaching design?

    Itā€™s
    the first step in an efficient and focused effort at getting to a goal.
    It is rare that organizations and individuals spend time on design (aka mission or purpose). People want to rush past it with the hand wave approach and say ā€œyes, yes, I already know I want to include VR, letā€™s get down to exactly this VR! Letā€™s start!ā€ 

    The
    point of a good design foundation is that it is like the rudder on a
    ship or the hypothesis to a scientific experiment; it guides you.

    A
    good design will provide guidance later when decisions arise. If you
    are clear on your purpose, then making later decisions becomes easier
    because you just evaluate which choice leads you along the path towards
    your mission or purpose. 

    For example, I worked on a VR project
    that had accessibility and ā€œhold up to 1,000 simultaneous avatarsā€ as
    its top design specifications. Those elements were key. So as I
    evaluated VR choices, we found VR choices that were:

    • Gamified
    • Popular
    • Supported by great tech 
    • Creative
    • Cheap
    • Gender-neutral

    But
    noticeā€¦none of these choices were the design elements we valued in the
    project. So these would have been the wrong choices; possibly fun
    choices, but wrong and regrettable. By staying focused on our mission,
    we maximized the chance of meeting our user experience expectations. 

    So teaching design for the purpose of valuing design ends up creating better products with more user satisfaction and better prices. Win-win.

    But what to teach in design?

    One of the first problems to pop up for me was content overload. These are some initial topics considered:

    • Objective/Purpose ā€” what does the experience claim to do/what does it really do
    • Accessibility ā€” tech/platform, modification ability, sounds, text, screen
    • User Control/Avatar Creation ā€” privacy/controls/independence
    • Presence/Immersion ā€” feeling of being there? Feeling of being inside the avatar?
    • Deep Play/Flow ā€” does the experience fully engage the user?
    • Narrative ā€” Does the experience appear to bring the user along?
    • Tech factors ā€” platform/latency/updates
    • Navigation/Menus ā€” 1st 30 seconds, how to exit, how to move
    • Manipulation/Change ā€” how does the user impact the experience
    • Motivation/Gamification ā€” why would a user use this past 30 seconds?
    • Social sharing ā€” how do users use this together?

    Each one of those topics could be a whole course.

    The
    next problem that we were running into was selecting which apps to
    incorporate and keep the costs down. We aimed for less than $50 of apps
    per learner.

    We also had to keep one eye on accessibility. Because
    the learners were going to get a headset shipped to them, the college
    sent early strong advice that the learners were opting in to this experience, it was not being done to them.
    We constantly kept in mind the concern that a learner might have a bad
    case of vertigo and be unable to don the headset after Week 1.

    The
    solution of what to cover in the course versus what apps to pick (and
    how to plan for emergencies)was my favorite part of the course design. 

    You can view the design in the Course design: Introduction to virtual reality, Spring 2021 diagram below. Time progresses from the bottom up each week.

    Diagram showing five layers to the course design explained in the text. Shows that each week, a series of design thinking steps took place. The apps used in the course could be moved in and out with no harm to the overall course.
    Copyright Heather Dodds 2021. All rights retained.

    You should spy:

    Bottom Row: The Design Thinking Model :
    Empathize, Design, Ideate, Prototype, and Evaluationā€” the week by week
    design of the course followed these steps (5 steps in 5 weeks)

    Second Row: The Pixar Narrative Plot model (simplified): Introduction, Set the Scene, Dilemma, Crisis, Change, and Resolution 

    Third Row: The Course Final Project cut into chunks

    Fourth Row: The Four VR Design Elements that we decided to focus on ā€” Function, Narrative Plot, Immersion, and Interface.

    Fifth Row: The Apps selected to align with a Design Element.

    As such, students worked through a design plan while learning about design planning. The apps worked independently of the course, then. It is easier to think of it in two main layers:

    1. The
      project ā€” all parts of the assignments lead up to the completion of a
      3ā€“minute video mock of the planned VR experience (Make an ā€œadā€, Persona
      and Plot, Ideate, Storyboard, Video).
    2. The apps ā€” all of the experiences were tested for appropriateness towards a specific design element.

    The
    in-between layers are all commonly recognized design elements. They
    become the grease that slips the main layers past each other. 

    Does one app fail or go offline? 

    No worries, slip in another one that addresses the same design element.

    Does a learner not finish their Week 2 assignment on time?

    No worries, the course is modular, they can proceed to the Week 3 apps while they catch up on the project.

    Arenā€™t these apps just for fun?

    No,
    I picked specific apps for specific design elements and prompted the
    learners to evaluate that element and discuss it within the course. Just
    saying an app was ā€œfunā€ was asking to fail the course discussion.

    By
    using these layers, any problems with app cost, procurement, running of
    the app, or learner problems would not stop the entire success of the
    course.

    To explain the diagram, Iā€™ll give one example from Week 1.

    We
    set up the course as a design cycle. Learners were going to make
    portfolios describing a future VR experience. The first step they needed
    to take was to empathize with their future VR app users. 

    Before they defined their users, they had to first be a user. 

    So, after safely unboxing and setting up their Oculus Quest 2, it was time for headset on and into some VR!

    They
    were asked to do three of these apps (below), talking out loud to
    themselves throughout the experience and then reporting back in a
    discussion prompt. Every observation is valid. They were tasked with
    evaluating function; how well did the app actually utilize the virtual
    reality medium? Could the experience have been done any other way
    equally as well? What stood out as amazing? (There were many more
    prompts to help them understand how to evaluate the VR design element of
    function.)

    One
    of the items that learners could have noted is that it is not easy to
    go to Antarctica. It is expensive and dangerous. Once there, learners
    may never have kayaked or used an expensive camera. It is unlikely
    theyā€™ve ice-climbed. All of these are affordances that
    virtual reality gives that no other current experience can replicate.
    The closest is a 360 degree video, but those often come with little
    interaction, you canā€™t actually paddle your kayak, or pick up a camera
    and take photos. Therefore, the function of this VR app is high; it is
    appropriately using VR to offer an experience.

     

    Capture from inside of National Geographic Antarctica VR Experience, with the user in a kayak looking at whales in the water.
    Taken inside of National Geographic Antarctica VR Experience.

    After
    this, students had to create an advertisement of their own planned VR
    experience. So they had to already have some of the feelings of their
    users to get ready to market their idea to other users.

    Additionally,
    week by week, learners would get exposed to increasingly more
    sophisticated evaluations so that they would be able to begin to
    discriminate between what was good and what was bad about any VR
    experience. The point was not to finish the course with learners that
    love VR. The point was to make learners who can pick and choose and know
    how to find VR that works for themselves and their ideas.

    Which apps?

    We selected and planned for ~4ā€“5 VR apps per week. 

    Week 1 ā€” Function

    Week 2 ā€” Narrative Plot

    Week 3 ā€” Immersion

    Week 4 ā€” Interface

    I want to strongly emphasize that we chose and included these apps for the design element per week.
    So as fun as Beat Saber can be, learners must report on the design
    elements of the interface (The menus, buttons, and music- what worked,
    what did not?) and the feeling of immersion (Were they really on a
    platform? Could they fall off? Was it light or dark? Do they have hands?
    Do they have a stomach?

    In
    hindsight, Iā€™d add more apps all through the five weeks because the
    learners really loved this part of the course. In week one, they were
    delighted. But by week five, theyā€™d lost their zest and were just
    looking to finish up. The device management process allows you to add
    more apps to the headset or switch them out, remember that. Just because
    a learner has an app in week one does not mean that you need to
    maintain access.

    Device management and privacy

    The key problem that many instructors worry about is the fact that the Quest 2s, when released, required the use of a Facebook account.
    I see this policy is changing and for the better. However, since we
    were at the front of using the Quest 2s right after they were launched,
    what were we going to do? Many instructors felt that learners using
    their own Facebook accounts for classroom activities was a violation of
    privacy in general. Personally, I will point out two thoughts:

    1.
    Many researchers and educators rightly point out that use of VR headsets
    for children under the age of 13 is pretty much not allowed by any
    Terms of Service of any of the major VR providers. Providing adequate
    protection in VR is something that these companies cannot assure.
    Therefore, bringing in school-age children into VR is something that
    requires more research and safeguards. 

    2. As someone who has been
    sexually harassed and bullied in real life situations, social media,
    and virtual reality, personally identifiable VR accounts is a good
    thing. Social media has played too fast and loose with privacy settings
    and many perpetrators know that. I donā€™t mind thinking that Iā€™m playing
    against a specific real person on Beat Saber and vice versa. However,
    Iā€™m an adult capable of taking responsibility for my own decisions and I
    also realize that as an adult, I am a consumer of my educational
    choices. I can simply put the headset down and walk away. Personally,
    Iā€™ve only ever designed VR for adults. This policy was a protection
    maneuver for the long game and I support it.

    I know educators
    hated this requirement and rose up on arms about it. But it was not a
    battle that they were going to win immediately. They need to keep
    pushing for educational use in other ways within these platforms.

    The Unity College XR Innovation Lab
    used a device management service and the learners rented their Quest
    2s. The DM created the accounts and we monitored what was going on with
    the headsets through the course (what apps were on the headset and last
    used, battery charge, last time activated, etc.) In short, it worked for
    this time period. In the future, itā€™s probably better advice for an
    institution to buy their own headsets.

    Teaching narrative plot in design

    Final
    thoughts about teaching narrative plot (introduction, set the scene,
    dilemma, crisis, change, resolution) so centrally to VR design ā€” do I
    regret that decision? 

    No, but Iā€™ve thought about it a lot. Given
    the huge range of experiences possible in VR, was I correct in
    emphasizing that my learners should be able to deduce out and design in a narrative plot
    in VR? I could have taught the course more technically (resolution,
    degrees of freedom, refresh rates) or from other perspectives like app
    popularity or headset features. Iā€™ve really kicked this idea around with
    my VR research colleagues and weā€™ve found that any VR experience ā€˜worth
    its saltā€™ will have these narrative plot features. Humans are pre-wired
    to understand and love stories. We seem destined to always look for
    cause and effect. We want to know why. Why does something happen? What
    caused it? What happens if I touch this?

    In VR headsets, the
    learner/user is the ultimate cause of effects. From the first moment (I
    taught that the Introduction is basically the Oculus Store adā€¦it is the
    moment when the learner previews what they are about to experience), the
    learner is beginning to move through the story.

    Just donning a headset means that the learner is willing to be changed by the experience at hand.

    When the headset powers up from dark to light, set the scene has begun.

    Even
    if the change and resolution happens far AFTER the headset comes off
    (this is very true of workplace VR training or meditation apps), a
    change does happen to the learner. So the elements of narrative plot are
    there. 

    After all, if virtual reality does not change you, why did you engage in it?

    Nowā€¦consider yourself introduced to teaching virtual reality.

    Got
    questions? Ask me! I have many more details like ā€œwhat did we plan if
    students could NOT use the Quest 2?ā€ or ā€œhow did you teach narrative
    plot in VR since VR is so new?ā€

    Please visit the Unity College XR Innovation Lab for more information and first-of-their-kind courses.

    Best wishes on your own course!

    #OculusQuest
    #VR #EdTech #TeachingInVR #CourseDesign #InstructionalDesign #Apps
    #VRApps #VRGames #VRCurriculum #DeviceManagement #Privacy #Design
    #Course #Experience #Learners #NarrativePlot #Elements #Reality #College
    #Development #Process #Function #Immersion #Interface #Menus #Buttons
    #VRSound #CreatingVR #DesigningVR #Layer #Storyboard #Persona #Pixar
    #Storytelling #Accessibility

    Updated images, mostly deleted stock photos, on February 18, 2026