It’s negative-30 degrees outside, but you’re wearing a T-shirt and jeans and nothing else. You missed the bus, but turned on your computer instead of sprinting out the door. Now, class is about to start, and you’re sitting around a campfire chatting with friends. And you’re an A+ student.
Welcome to Carleton Virtual, a fully interactive and completely online virtual-reality classroom.
What began as a research program in the Carleton School of Information Technology, under the supervision of Ali Arya, is now a three-dimensional reproduction of Carleton’s physical campus, and of downtown Ottawa.
In 2011, Arya’s research group approached Peggy Hartwick, a Carleton English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor, and invited her to use Carleton Virtual as an environment to teach languages.
“Since then, I’ve become really intrigued and fascinated by the environment,” Hartwick said. “I think it has a lot of potential . . . Our biggest challenge now is actually showing people what it is.”
At CarletonVirtual, students and teachers meet via avatars in what can best be described as virtual classrooms.
“There are traditional style classrooms. As a teacher, I can upload my PowerPoint here, and search the Internet, and we’re all interacting,” Hartwick said.
Students can call out answers, and engage in class discussions as in any standard classroom. There are spaces for group work with access to workstations, as well, all synchronous, with the added benefit that the room will never get as loud as a standard classroom. Voices are contained so students and teachers only hear each other when they are close together. In addition, since students and instructors can log in and out at any time, students can meet outside of class time to prepare presentations, study together, and explore.
Through several years of pilot projects, Carleton Virtual has been updated to have many different spaces, such as downtown Ottawa, where language students can explore cultural elements of Canadian life, as well as engage in discussions and activities that may have otherwise been impossible. One ESL instructor used the space for a scavenger hunt activity.
