Project Activities
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Product: History Maker VR is a playful virtual reality (VR) content-creation tool that allows students to embody historical characters in immersive settings, record performances featuring those characters, and share their performance files to demonstrate material mastery. History Maker VR is designed to scaffold creative storytelling, and to encourage embodied learning and for students to take pride in content creation. Students will use a variety of props (e.g., books, parchment, quills) during their VR performances and can play back their movements and voice recording from the Director's Booth in the audience. To access notes, talking points, or historical facts while in VR, students will pre-load text into a folder and then read notes on a teleprompter inside the environment. To share performances, content will be in a format that can be projected on a monitor for a class to watch or will be exported to a video file to be submitted as reports. History Maker VR intends to increase student engagement and knowledge of U.S. history and civics, their interest and enthusiasm for studying history and civics, and their historical thinking skills.
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Supplemental information
Video Demonstration of the Phase Prototype: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhYi-tcTrDs&feature=youtu.be
In Phase II, the researchers will focus on developing a select number of modules with characters from specific historical events, in-game exporting tools, and implementation activities to accompany the VR experience. After development is complete, the research team will conduct a pilot study to assess the feasibility and usability, fidelity of implementation, and the promise of the History Maker VR for improving student learning outcomes and teacher instructional practices in history. The study will include 30 middle school history classes with 900 students (30 students per class), with half of the classes randomly assigned to use History Maker VR over 3 weeks and half to follow business-as-usual activities. Researchers will compare students' pre-and-post scores for historical facts and skill to investigate and analyze events.
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To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.