Dr. Elizabeth Thill has reiterated time and again to skeptics in her field that virtual reality has serious pedagogical applications. It's not just a fun way to get students interested; it is in fact integral to her curriculum. Thill uses VR in her courses on The Art and Archaeology of Rome, Myth and Reality in Classical Art, and Sex and Gender in the Ancient World, where she is able to demonstrate architectural and sculptural details of ancient artifacts in a way that is so effective, it's been game changing to her teaching.
Elizabeth Thill
Director, Classical Studies Program, IUPUI
Assistant Professor of Classical Studies in World Languages and Cultures, IUPUI
Jeannette Lehr, from UITS Student Outreach, met (in VR, of course) with Professor Elizabeth Thill and University Library's Jenny Johnson and Ryan Knapp to discuss how teaching with VR is much more than a neat trick.
About a year ago Dr. Thill met Jenny Johnson and Ryan Knapp while working on a project that involved 3D scans of ancient sculptures. Jenny Johnson is the head of digitization services for University Library and provides access to and preserves cultural heritage objects via 3D scanning. Thill was impressed with the beauty and quality of 3D scans of ancient objects, but she was not sure how they could be useful.
Then Ryan Knapp, technology services manager at University Library, showed Thill what the scans looked like in a high-quality VR headset. The ability to (virtually) move around and touch the artifacts impressed Thill. She was hooked, and she started using VR to teach her students about ancient artifacts. And so the journey began in fall 2019: Knapp placing the scans in VR and developing entire VR experiences, including ancient architectural buildings and environments in which to house the sculptures; Jenny facilitating the whole process; and Thill curating it all for her students.
However, with the move online in spring 2020, Thill went back to using PowerPoint. It was then that she was able to see the stark difference between what had once been her preferred teaching tool, PowerPoint, and what has emerged as the best way to convey information about the ancient world: virtual reality. After a semester of settling for 2D presentations, Thill went back to teaching with VR for the fall semester of 2020. Even displaying the VR experience to her students in remote Zoom lectures far surpasses the old model.
"I thought students would be annoyed with glitches, but they mostly think it's funny," said Thill. They all laughed when she got trapped under the Athenian Acropolis. "I think they really enjoy the sense of cutting-edge technology."
A lot of instructors think that in order to use VR in their classes, every student would have to have a VR headset. But Thill suggests starting with demonstrating VR by having one quality $300 headset and projecting the display onto a screen for the class to see. Students don't have to put on the headset to have a quality learning experience. In addition, many students are visual learners and being able to see artifacts from different angles in VR, or to see a professor like Thill walk around a space, gives them a deeper understanding.
With VR, Thill can spend her valuable time preparing more substantive content for her lectures. Instead of being able to talk about only a couple of sculptures using 2D slides and lots of time describing them, she is able to pick up 16 different sculptures and raise them in the air for students to see from different angles. They get to see it all in-depth and much more efficiently in VR. It opens up so much more time for her to talk about the meaning behind the qualities of the architecture and artifacts—what it means that the building was structured in certain ways, and that's really the more important part.
Knapp and Johnson believe that this kind of opportunity will be expanded to more students when educators and administrators get the chance to try out high-quality headsets for themselves. Knapp and Johnson believe that when you see it for yourself, you can't ignore the potential. Thill feels the same way about buy-in for professionals in her field. "In classical studies, we're used to putting together tiny paper models of the Forum of Trajan and seeing which one looks stupider. Whereas Ryan can build me an entire Forum of Trajan in VR that I can walk through and test hypotheses," said Thill. Only time will tell when and if VR takes off in higher education, but if you ask Thill, now is a great time to start.
Favorites and the future of VR
When asked about their favorite things about VR and their next steps in the medium, each of our VR experts had this to say:
Jenny Johnson
Johnson said that seeing the student reactions to VR and inspiring them to pursue this technology is what impressed her most about this endeavor. "We may be changing future careers," she said.
For Johnson, an ideal future for this line of work is one where VR and 3D digitization are core services of academic libraries. She sees a long-lasting future for this kind of work and thinks it has the potential to be game-changing for many university library systems.
Ryan Knapp
For Knapp, knowing that there are so many things to come that we haven't seen yet is the most exciting thing about VR. "In VR, you aren't bound by the limitations of the physical world," he said. People who wouldn't normally have the opportunity to go to Rome, or even Mars, will have the opportunity to do so in a realistic way.
Knapp's next steps will be creating multi-user virtual learning spaces where students and instructors can interact together in a simulated classroom environment. And then, taking it outside the classroom is after that. Knapp's ultimate goal is to build a realistic and immersive recreation of Ancient Rome so students can travel the streets, view the architecture, and learn what it was like to walk the streets of Rome.
Dr. Thill
VR is a democratized medium, and that is what Thill loves the most about VR. VR is a way to bring things and experiences to people who couldn't otherwise afford to experience them. Like other new technologies in the past, VR opens up options to more people. Thill really believes that VR is not just nifty; it's game changing. "We're talking about hard core research, hard core pedagogical advantages," Thill said. "You can do things in VR that you cannot do in real life."
For Thill, the next step will be a debate held in VR, in the Parthenon. She says students will be joining the virtual space this time. All of the technical details haven't been worked out yet, but Thill is excited to get students into VR to interact with the ancient world in an even more immersive way.
What should instructors do if they’re interested in exploring VR?
Thill cautions instructors who are new to VR not to try to create the more in-depth experiences, similar to what she's been doing, on their own. If you want to create customized experiences, you need someone like Johnson and Knapp to help you with the technology development aspect. Thill is thankful that IUPUI has staff in the position to do this kind of work with VR. Thill believes this work is worthy of professional support and she hopes all campuses will have VR developers on staff eventually. Knapp says that even if you don't teach from the IUPUI campus, "I would encourage instructors to talk with us. We're happy to work with them on finding different possible applications." They said once instructors come up with a need to ask for help.
Thill recommends going at VR with very specific pedagogical goals. Adjust your expectations. Especially in the beginning, you won't be able to have everything you want in VR, but you can do a lot.
Read more about Thill's work in VR in a piece written for IUPUI's The Campus Citizen, or experience a VR tour with Thill below.
Credits and contact
This team's research has received very generous support from the IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute and is now part of their Incubator Project with Dr. Jason Kelly. The student participation has been funded by the UL + CDS and the IUPUI Center for Research and Learning, now part of the IUPUI Division of Undergraduate Education. Dr. Thill, Ryan Knapp, and Jenny Johnson have generously offered to share their contact information with interested instructors. Feel free to contact them with questions:
Dr. Elizabeth Thill, Assistant Professor and Program Director of Classical Studies at IUPUI,
Ryan Knapp, Technology Services Manager at IUPUI’s University Library,
Jenny Johnson, Head of Digitization Services at IUPUI’s University Library,
Description of the video:
so this is the hairstyle
uh of a roman house um and this is gonna
be
um sort of a gathering space for the
family but it also lets in light and air
circulation
but if you can follow me here we're
gonna go
out the door
and see how the roman house
actually functions in a very different
way that we would expect a house to
function so if you're out here with me
and you turn and you look through the
door
you can actually see all the way into
the house
because this was a public space used to
frame
someone to the public so stay where
stay where you are for two seconds
so if i am the clock the patron
i am the owner of the house you are
clients all right you're dependent on me
and you're walking
in uh for the morning salutatio and you
see me framed
in this great room with this nice
background and i look so rich and cool
right now
you're ready to vote for me so come on
in come on into the atrium
come on in and i'm going to let you come
even closer
um jeanette i'll take your questions
first uh ryan you just stand there and
wait
so jeanette you can come all right now
i'm going to otherwise you're going to
have to mill around here and you can
look in these rooms and you can sort of
see how rich
i am i'm very rich and powerful and
by the way i have spectacular taste in
art
um just the same um and now i'm gonna
socially upgrade you
you guys are now my friends so
congratulations
um and i'm gonna take you through here
come on
come on in and we're we're good friends
and i'm going to be hosting
yes you both are my friends now come on
um and we're going to well
i'm tied to a court here we're going to
go over here and we're going to have
dinner
um and actually sorry romans would never
walk on the grass because grass is gross
um you walk around here and i'm talking
and i'm telling you about this sculpture
i picked this up in greece and
for the sake of speed i'm going to come
over here all right so we're going to
have a dinner and we're going to look
out here
so come on into the triclinium let's see
i think this is technically an oicus but
whatever
and we're going to look and this is
going to be our view all right so we're
going to talk about
the r and we're going to talk about
politics and who we're going to backstab
and feed to the praetorian guards next
um and now um
ryan you are not my best friend and
you're not
in this conspiracy to kill caesar so
you're gonna stay here and janette you
can come with me
into an even more private room
over here which is very nice and very
impressive ryan you can actually come if
you want
um yeah don't you feel not as special um
and so in here jeanette feels so
special and she's also seen that i am so
incredible look at my house
this is gorgeous and she and i we are
special friends and we know because
we're in the same space together
and it's private no one else is going to
come in here and we're going to plot the
assassination of caesar
and it's great because you look around
here and you're like well liz must know
what she's talking about
i'm going to kill a dictator with her
and
yeah i'm very successful i'm very
powerful i got a lot of money i have a
weird
rabbit mosaic um that's
how the roman house is set up right this
does not
function like in a like an american
house right like an american house where
we're all about the privacy and you have
like
this is the kitchen this is the dining
room this is the living room
um i'm gonna change what i'm doing in a
room
based on my personal needs
uh and i'm gonna have different rooms
that i can use for
pretty much what we would consider the
same purpose so i might be willing to
meet with jeanette in here
but you ryan you're just like a pathetic
client so
i'm going to come back out here geez
what do you
want oh my god these clients and i'm
just going to meet you
like in here all right hi i'm over here
okay uh i'm in here and so
like this is not as nice you don't feel
as special
right you are not as good as jeanette
you've escorted me here
after the decision that i'm not worthy
right right so i you're not gonna get to
come in
so that i can use this space for a
meeting or i can use that space for a
meeting or that space like there's all
these different spaces i can use
and i control the social energy and i
control the social relationships just by
which room
we're standing in it's a very dynamic
social
structure
well it's also interesting because you
can and actually i'm sort of getting
this as i'm role-playing here in that
you can modify it in the moment like i
could meet you
jeanette here and be like no come with
me
let's let's be better friends let's go
this way over here and if things are
going well it can be
like you know what now we're better
friends let's let's go here as opposed
to
a very static social dynamic that's
already fixed
does that correlate to how far you're
inviting them into the house as to
how much trust there is in that
relationship how much you're approving
of them
and wanting to invite them into your
exactly to
assassinate yes and they're very aware
of this right so it must be a very tense
thing if i say the wrong thing
i'm going to get escorted to as part of
a house where
i'm not i don't feel as important does
it make for kind of a more like
tenth like i want to please you at all
times so i can be
you know kept in exactly it's a way for
me to signal
instantly to you in this case my social
inferiors
how i'm feeling like if you come and you
say like
i'd like right like so if you come in
and you say i want to invest
in i don't know this merchant ship
that's going to thieves and i'm like
uh-huh then that is one reaction but if
i'm like oh
come on in here let's talk let's talk
more in this more private space about
thebes
this is like a physical motion for you
to understand but like yes i am
approving
um i am interacting with you in a
positive way or
if i say like yeah no you're not going
farther than this you're just
you're done here then you physically
know that like oh
i don't approve without you needing to
say that because there's sort of social
tension
and just outright saying i don't approve
of you
you but it's sort of a social
expectation and norm
right and understood that well
and another nice thing is that this is
useful so brian if you're here
and i'm talking with jeanette you don't
necessarily know my relationship with
jeanette right because you don't maybe
know her
right but she's just another client but
if i say like hey jeanette
come with me you can watch me
approve of jeanette and bring jeanette
or if you see jeanette already in there
in the triclinium you know
i like jeanette better than i like you
because you're over here and she's over
there
okay um so if it wasn't it was a
conversation you might not hear me
say i love your idea about fees
right because you can't hear that but
you can watch me and jeanette go like
this
and you're like ah he might be well it's
like he always he must have liked
jeanette's idea about things
okay remind me when we were standing at
the door and you were standing there
and you invited us in sort of initially
so that's like a first contact we're
just meeting you
and that's as far as you would let us go
initially and we know that and we expect
that
and we right so this is a this is a
waiting space
um so you're gonna hear my client
like if we already have a legal
relationship you're gonna be able to
just like mill around in here anytime
you want basically this is open space
um and then i'll call you in here like
if you think about this as a waiting
room and this is like an
office i'll say like ryan i'll see you
now jeanette i'll see you now
um well yeah it's a very nice waiting
room
and there would have been chess all
around in here
of valuables so that i could see it
you you could wait around and be like
wow he's got a lot of chess he must be
really wealthy
it's all about the power display and was
this a bath
or a pool or no it's a pool
it's a pool slash water catchment area
it's the main water source of the house
so the main water source is going to be
rain coming through here falling into
here and if this was
accurate which it's not there would be a
hole
that drains into a major cistern that
takes up a good percentage of the
floor span of the house underneath
so would nests be allowed here or was it
just residents
or both or boats
i mean this is huge normally it's a much
smaller area
but what's interesting rain clouds and
rain from this spot right here that
would be really
cool yeah did they drink this water
or yes i mean not out of here they would
there would be a well generally
someplace else in the house
that they would pull the water out of
the cistern no no no from
here from the cistern but they wouldn't
like lap it up
out of the impluvium they would um
they would draw it from someplace else
yeah
okay now the system it would like kill
the system the cistern is like all
under the house and so probably
somewhere back in here um
depending on the size of the house
there's going to be a well there's a
bathroom
that they can pull up that's a bathroom
this is like a bath in here it's kind of
dark
yeah um yeah
this bath in here but yep is there a
kitchen generally not in a house this
size
there might have been um but mostly
people are
took in the peristyle or in the atrium
or outside in the yard
because a it's super hot and b
it's for dangerous um to have an open
flame in a building like this um when
you cook on an open fire like actually
cook not like you're barbecuing
like a hot dog you're going to get to
you need heat of about like
400 450 degrees um so you don't want to
have to be in an enclosed space with
that you also have the smoke
contamination um and so
um before like i don't know the dates
exactly but like before
1920 or something like that or
1890 the second leading cause of death
for
for women after childbirth and
complications thereof
uh was fire from catching your skirts in
the
in the fires so you really don't want to
have a kitchen and if it's a big enough
build
house that it has a kitchen first of all
you're really looking at something along
the lines of like
closer to downton abbey than like your
or my house
where they need a kitchen because
they're just they're serving so many
people
all the time and they generally were
probably used
mostly as ovens or um
like storage places as opposed to like
i'm gonna cook
a six course meal in here because you
just bring the house down
and that would be good i see
so very cool
For more VR resources at IU, check out the Reality Labs on multiple IU campuses, the UITS Advanced Visualization Lab (AVL), and the Idea Garden at IUPUI. The UITS Student Outreach team also provides opportunities for student exploration of emerging and learning technologies like VR.