Recipient Organization
TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
LUBBOCK,TX 79409
Performing Department
Veterinary Medicine
Non Technical Summary
Many undergraduate and professional animal and veterinary science students in the United States come from non-rural, non-farm backgrounds. In order to gain exposure to animal production, students must primarily rely on their course and laboratory work within their degree programs. While courses often incorporate limited access to university and commercial farms, there are a number of challenges (i.e. funding, biosecurity, large class sizes) that prevent students from gaining adequate farm exposure and experience solving common animal-related challenges. The purpose of this proposal is to investigate an additional mechanism for students to gain on-farm experience through the use of virtual reality (VR) modules focusing on swine and dairy production systems and common welfare issues they would likely come across while working in the livestock industry.The objectives are as follows:1. Create, develop and evaluate the use of VR modules in an entry-level freshman course to increase student interest and understanding of swine and dairy production systems.2. Create, develop and evaluate the use of VR-based animal welfare case studies that can be introduced in upper-level animal welfare, capstone production, or first-year graduate/veterinary courses.3. Provide training opportunities for animal science-related faculty at other U.S. institutions to utilize and assess the success of the VR modules in their own classrooms.To accomplish these objectives, the primary investigators on this study will utilize a multi-collaborator, multi-university and private business approach to develop, utilize and evaluate whether VR could be a useful tool for preparing undergraduate students for a future in animal agriculture.
Animal Health Component
60%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
60%
Developmental
40%
Goals / Objectives
The long-term goals of this project are to 1) increase student interest in pursuing and completing animal agriculturalrelateddegrees and, 2) to improve student understanding of on-farm animal welfare by giving students opportunitiesto apply their knowledge and practice the critical thinking skills needed to mitigate common farm animal welfarechallenges. To achieve this, we have three specific objectives:Objective 1: Create, develop and evaluate the use of VR modules in an entry-level freshman course to increase studentinterest and understanding of swine and dairy production systems.Objective 2: Create, develop and evaluate the use of VR-based animal welfare case studies that can be introduced in upperlevelanimal welfare, capstone production, or first-year graduate/veterinary courses.Objective 3: Provide training opportunities for animal science-related faculty at other U.S. institutions to utilize and assess thesuccess of the VR modules in their own classrooms.
Project Methods
Objective 1: Create, develop and evaluate the use of VR modules in an entry-level freshman course to increase student interest and understanding of swine and dairy production systems.Objective 2:Create, develop and evaluate the use of VR-based animal welfare case studies that can be introduced in upper-level animal welfare, and capstone production, or first-year graduate/veterinary courses.Virtual reality-based lessons focused on swine and dairy production systems will be created in an attempt to provide students an opportunity to observe United States production norms and solve common swine or dairy welfare challenges. The lessons will be broken down into four modules as follows:Module 1: Introductory Swine Production ExperienceModule 2: Introductory Dairy Production ExperienceModule 3: Advanced Swine Welfare Problem Solving ModuleModule 4: Advanced Dairy Welfare Problem Solving ModuleEach module will be created in collaboration with Be More Colorful, LLC, a company located in Fargo, ND, USA that specializes in providing "real-world virtual reality solutions" for a number of industries through the development of 360° and virtual reality videos and imagery. The proposed modules will be hosted and easily accessible for users via a password protected internet platform for use with a standard VR headset, smartphone and VR mini-glasses, or a standard computer desktop.The proposed virtual reality modules are different from standard video and photo animal facility tours. Instead of watching the tour on a stationary screen, the experience allows a user to fully immerse themselves into the production facility (see images). With the 360° image capture design of the camera, the user can rotate in any direction to view uninterrupted video and imagery, and hear the sounds occurring in the facility as if they were standing in the room. Additionally, users are given the ability to move throughout the facility at their will, which provides another level of user interaction and control compared to standard video and photo tours.Overview of the proposed VR modulesAll four modules will consist of a fully immersible (360°) video component, which will allow the student user to observe the facilities "in action," followed by fully immersible (360°) key still-scenes within the facilities where student users can continue to explore the facility and interact with the informational and case study components of the modules.Following the development of modules 1-4, their effectiveness will be evaluated in undergraduate and veterinary classrooms and student focus groups at the North Dakota State University, and the Texas Tech Univeristy. Up to 300 undergraduate (approximately 75 lower-division and 75 upper division students per undergraduate institution) and 100 first-year veterinary students (Texas-Tech only) will be invited to participate in data collection. Please see the "Evaluation Plans" portion of this proposal for specific details regarding the evaluation of student use.Objective 3: Provide training opportunities for animal science-related faculty at other U.S. institutions to utilize and assess the success of the VR modules in their own classrooms. Up to 20 faculty and staff from other U.S. institutions will be recruited at national conferences to participate in training regarding how to use and implement the VR modules in their classrooms. During the training sessions, faculty will experience the VR system and will be given a teaching guide. The teaching guide will include further details related to the case study to assist with instruction including possible answers and explanations. The faculty will be asked to implement the VR modules into their own courses within 6 months of training and complete follow-up surveys regarding ease of use, how well the modules fit within their own teaching missions, likelihood of continued use, and overall student learning and engagement impressions. Faculty provided feedback will be used to make any necessary changes to the modules and will be made available in a publication. The final publication will provide a link to the modules for future use in the classroom for all faculty.