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Immersive and interactive storytelling in virtual reality (VR) is an emerging creative practice that has been thriving in recent years. Educational applications using immersive VR storytelling to explain complex science concepts have very promising pedagogical benefits because on the one hand, storytelling breaks down the complexity of science concepts by bridging them to people's everyday experiences and familiar cognitive models, and on the other hand, the learning process is further reinforced through rich interactivity afforded by the VR experiences. However, it is unclear how different amounts of storytelling and interactivity in an interactive VR storytelling experience may affect learning outcomes due to a paucity of literature on educational VR storytelling research. This dissertation aims to add to the literature through an exploration of interactivity and essential storytelling elements in educational VR storytelling experiences and their impact on learning. We designed a working prototype of interactive and immersive VR storytelling experience, Immunology VR, that focuses on the learning of specific immunology concepts: neutrophil transmigration and killing mechanisms. Based on the initial prototype, we further developed six variations that allowed us to conduct two major experiments below. Our first experiment explored designs of three different levels of interactivity, low, medium, and high, in the VR storytelling experiences and their effects on immunology learning. We found subjective evidence to support our research hypothesis that increased level of interactivity will lead to increased engagement in VR learning. Our finding suggests that interactivity is a key design element in VR learning design for effective learning and should be considered in all VR learning applications. Our second experiment focused on the designs of the level of storytelling richness and their effects on learning. Specifically, we designed three storytelling conditions, minimal storytelling, basic storytelling, and advanced storytelling, and investigated how each of them affected immunology learning. Subjective evidence from our user interview data suggested that participants from higher levels of storytelling conditions were more likely to perceive storytelling elements as the most useful features in the VR experience that helped with their learning. It is also suggested that higher levels of richness in essential storytelling elements may trigger certain emotions and empathy in more users and positively affect their learning. / Doctor of Philosophy / Immersive and interactive storytelling in virtual reality (VR) is an emerging creative practice that has been thriving in recent years. Educational applications using immersive VR storytelling to explain complex science concepts have very promising pedagogical benefits because on the one hand, storytelling breaks down the complexity of science concepts by bridging them to people's everyday experiences and familiar cognitive models, and on the other hand, the learning process is further reinforced through rich interactivity provided by the VR experiences. However, it is unclear how different amounts of storytelling and interactivity setup in an interactive VR storytelling experience may affect learning outcomes due to a paucity of literature on educational VR storytelling research. In this dissertation, we explored interactivity and essential storytelling elements in educational VR storytelling experiences and their impact on learning.

Virtual reality (VR) has been successfully applied to a broad range of training domains; however, to date there is little research investigating its benefits for sport training. In this work we investigated the feasibility and usefulness of using VR for two sport subdomains: sport psychology and sport biomechanics. In terms of sport psychology training, high-fidelity VR systems could be used to display realistic 3D environments to induce anxiety, allowing resilience-training systems to prepare athletes for real-world, high-pressure situations. For sport biomechanical training, we could take advantage of the 3D tracking available in VR systems to capture and display full-body movements in real-time, and could design flexible 3D environments to foster a valuable and engaging training experience. To address using VR for sport psychology training, in this work we present a case study and a controlled experiment. Our work addresses whether a VR system can induce anxiety in participants, and if so, how this anxiety impacts performance, and what the implications are for VR system design. sing VR for sport biomechanical training, in this work we present a case study describing the development of a VR-based jump training application. Our work addresses whether an effective VR biomechanical training system can be achieved using standard computer equipment and commodity tracking devices, and how we should design the user experience of a VR sport training system to effectively deliver biomechanical principles. / Master of Science

Orbital is a virtual reality gaming experience designed to explore the use of traditional narrative structure to enhance immersion in virtual reality. The story structure of Orbital was developed based on the developmental steps of 'The Hero's Journey,' a narrative pattern identified by Joseph Campbell. Using this standard narrative pattern, Orbital is capable of immersing the player quickly and completely for the entirety of play time. / Master of Fine Arts / <i>Orbital</i> is a virtual reality video game, in which an astronaut must navigate an asteroid field and reach a nearby space station prior to running out of fuel. The control of this astronaut was bound to a player’s head mounted display, which tracked the direction a player was looking and placed the player in the immersive experience. This experience was designed as an exploration of how traditional long-form narrative structure (films/books) could be applied to a short virtual reality experience. In the hope that it could provide a more immersive experience for the player. The story structure of <i>Orbital</i> was developed based on the developmental steps of ‘The Hero’s Journey,’ a narrative pattern identified by Joseph Campbell. Using this standard narrative pattern, <i>Orbital</i> is capable of immersing the player quickly and completely for the entirety of play time.

Working around conveyor belts is the cause of numerous accidents each year that are costly to the mining industry. Current safety training practices generally include the use of slide show presentations, lectures, videos, and paper material before sending each worker onto site with an experienced person for on-the-job task training. These training methods are passive in nature and do not allow for an actual realization of consequences resulting from ignoring safety practices during interaction between the employee and the environment. It is with this in mind that virtual reality (VR) is being proposed as an added effective method of safety training. In order to prove this hypothesis, a working VR prototype application of a mining environment has been developed. The application is designed in two modules. The first consists of an instructional based module, where the user is given all relevant information based on background research dealing with safety issues, hazard awareness, conveyor maintenance, and conveyor components and assemblies. The second module is a task-based training session that then tracks the user's performance as they complete assigned tasks. An evaluation scheme was performed on the prototype to determine the usability and usefulness and identify areas in need of improvement. First, industry professionals were presented the application in an informal setting where the types of information and overall concept were examined and perceived usefulness was discussed. Secondly, users, both novice and industry professionals, were asked to go through the prototype training application and rate their agreement with statements based on the user interface and usability of the application. Finally, subjective interviews were performed to record perceived benefits of the virtual reality application over typical training material. This final stage consists of using both industry professionals and novice experience individuals and documenting their perceptions of benefits and challenges of using both typical methods of training and the designed prototype. This document consists of an explanation of the research steps and papers that are published (or in press) detailing certain areas of the research, compiled findings, conclusions, and future research suggestions. / Master of Science

For the last five years, East Tennessee State University’s Department of Digital Media has partnered with the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in downtown Knoxville to create a collection of training modules for their nursing staff. Dozens of students have devoted thousands of hours both inside and outside of the department’s various production courses to build the eleven modules currently in use today. However, development has not been without its hurdles, particularly in moving from one project to the next. Poor documentation and miscommunications compounded with faults in the projects’ design philosophies to repeatedly delay production. While each deliverable was playable by the end of the given semesters, there were often bugs and other quality issues left unaddressed. Luckily, graduate assistants and interns were brought on to help direct students in class, and to finish the projects on off-semesters. As one of those graduate assistants, I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside Stephanie Nicely, our project manager and hospital liaison to build on the works of past developers, assist in managing the development of current projects, and lay groundwork for future growth.

With The Fabulist, I hope to provide many of the pleasures of popular narrative — addictive plot, compelling characters, immersive setting — while also conducting an earnest interrogation of the value of fantasy in all its forms, as well as the moral vacuity of the lonely fiefdom the protagonist constructs for himself out of pop cultural detritus and his various nostalgic and artistic whims. The book straddles two major settings and timelines: the suburban creep of Pooter Valentine's hometown, a world where strip malls and big box stores and fast food chains are being augmented in quiet magical realist fashion by something more sinister; and an ambiguously virtual game-world of Pooter's design, an RPG and DND-indebted land of endless quests and haunting vistas which may not have an exit. While the novel is grounded in the subjectivity of Pooter's anhedonia and egotism, it also aims to puncture his interiority by also becoming a story about his parents and the real people who begin to intrude (to Pooter's surprise and chagrin) upon the video-game world he is allegedly the master of. Ultimately, it intends to tell a story both of the everyday ways in which we escape (and in so doing, undermine) our reality, and of a grandly supernatural departure; of escapism as an act of abandonment, but also (at its best) a catalyst for new communities and connections. This novel draft aspires to all these goals, and may perhaps achieve some of them one day. / MFA