Immersive Accessibility: Working with the Emerging Media Lab

Event Date & Time

Event Description

This event is part of the 2022 Celebrate Learning Week.

The Emerging Media Lab presents an introduction to emerging media such as virtual reality or augmented reality. But this Celebrate Learning Week, we feature a discussion with EML faculty members currently working with EML on projects that take a step back and first ask, “does it have to be VR?”

Join EML Faculty in Residence Jon Festinger of Allard Law and Dr. Lindsay Rogers of UBC Biochemistry for a discussion of what it’s like to work with the Emerging Media Lab. As principal investgators on EML’s Moot Court and 3D Metabolism projects respectively, Professor Festinger’s Moot Court project aims to help first- and second-semester law students prepare for in-person mock trials. It can be very daunting for law students to argue in front of a judge or panel of judges, and getting practice with the idea of what to say, while standing in front of a virtual judge. Professor Rogers’ project, 3D Metabolism, is a visualization tool to help biochemistry students better understand the metabolic network within a cell. It’s an alternative to the incredibly complex diagrams used in traditional textbooks.

Both projects have a great deal in common: tackling a problem that presents a significant barrier to students’ success in their respective programs, as well as providing an accessible solution: while both tools are built using the same 3D technology used for virtual and augmented reality, students only need a web browser to use these tools, rather than requiring complicated hardware and know-how to access them.

Facilitators:

• Lindsay Rogers, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine
• Jon Festinger, Adjunct Professor, Allard School of Law
• Catherine Winters, Lab Supervisor, Emerging Media Lab