This interactive 360 video VR experience brings to life the world of a person with a disability. The project is a collaboration between the Business School, the Media team and the Immersive developers to create a powerful experience to educate students about and build empathy for those with a disability.
Project Details
The Riding with Amy Disability Project brings the user on a journey following a person with a disability in a cafe scenario. The scenes show how they are perceived by others in the cafe, as well as their point of view when doing tasks such as finding a place at the table or ordering food. The player experiences both good and bad interactions and is prompted to make choices, see what various people are thinking and interact with the scene using virtual reality.
This is a wonderful collaboration with academics from Marketing in the UNSW Business School, particularly Dr. Veronica Jiang, EF Senior Lecturer and Academic Disability Advisor.
TEACHING & RESEARCH
The experience is used each term in one of the large core postgraduate Marketing courses as a component of their groupwork project where disability is a major theme. Riding with Amy has also been used in research looking at video, interactive video and virtual reality comparisons.
TECHNOLOGY & DEVELOPMENT
While the project is in a stable state, the minor enhancements continue as the technology improves and small requests are delivered. The staff and work integrated learning student developers are using the Unity game engine to bring together all the elements and deliver the VR experience using our Meta Quest 3 headsets. The original script work, filming and coordination of the actors and shooting was done by the Media team.
OUTREACH & NEWS
News Blog: Riding with Amy: A virtual reality journey towards disability inclusion
Data
“Through technology, I can experience the perspective of people with disabilities in class, which enables me to empathize more with them. At the same time, the immersive VR experience prepares me for the NOVA Employment projects.”
Student Feedback from the MARK5700 Course Survey
Usage
The Riding with Amy VR Experience is used in the MARK5700 Marketing course as an exercise supporting the project relating to marketing for disability services. The course runs every term which means over 1000 students each year.
Riding with Amy has also been used at events like the UNSW Scientia Circle Donor lunches and UNSW Disability Week.
Survey Results
Some data points from 1070 respondents to the MARK5700 post-experience survey (7-point Likert scale)
92% indicated that the VR experience prepared them for drafting marketing plans for NOVA Employment (Mean = 5.9).
95% recognized the innovative nature of VR in course teaching (Mean = 6.3), while 90% found the VR experience inspiring (Mean = 5.89).
94% claimed the VR experience increased their engagement with the course (Mean = 6.2).
94% agreed that the VR experience deepened their understanding of people with disability (Mean = 6.2).
95% asserted they would consider the needs of people with disability more conscientiously in the future (Mean = 6.3).
92% felt more confident interacting with individuals with disability after the VR experience (Mean = 6.1).
Credits
“This VR experience allowed me to understand the lives of people with disability and the challenges they face every day. This experience has equipped me with new skills and ways to work with them in the future.”
Student Feedback from MARK5700 Course Survey
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Shortlisted for the 2024 International QS Reimagine Education Awards. |
Key Academics
Veronica Jiang (Senior Lecturer, School of Marketing, Academic Disability Advisor, Business, UNSW)
Design, Production & Development
Xueqing (Sherry) Lu (Immersive Technology Specialist & Developer, PVC Education, UNSW)
Roxie Vuong (Media Specialist, PVC Education, UNSW)
David Nguyen (Media Specialist, PVC Education, UNSW)
Work Integrated Learning Student Placements
Williams Gunawan (Software Engineering Thesis)
Get Involved
There are internal Teams Channels, Miro Boards and working groups covering the development collaboration with Marketing in the Business School. To find out more, join the team, get a demo or have your class or promotion use-case included just get in touch.
- Email: [email protected]