Curious about the exciting research happening on campus this year at the Polytechnic? Or considering applying for a research grant yourself and would like to hear firsthand from someone already in the process?  

I recently sat down with Kris Hodgson-Bright, faculty in Digital Communications and Media, to discuss his STAR Grant research project kicking off this fall. Check out the highlights from our conversation. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.  

Q. Can you tell our readers—and people who may be unfamiliar with VR—about your research in just a few words? 

I’m using virtual reality software called Ovation to identify if VR can help students reduce their anxiety when it comes to public speaking.  

Q. What inspired you to explore this topic? Do you see a lot of students struggling with public speaking? 

I think it is worse in the student’s mind. They psych themselves out more than anything. But we did do an informal survey with all the first-year students, and so many said that they’re scared of public speaking. 

I have an interest in immersive storytelling, and I like to dabble in virtual reality—peripherally—I don’t know how to create virtual environments in Blender or Unity. I just really admire it and think it’s incredible. Mike McCready (who used to work here) and another instructor said I should check this out; it might be something really cool to explore. I look to other talented people to help me through these cool research projects! 

“Success, to me, looks like the students actually enjoying themselves while they’re participating in the project.”

Q. Give us an overview of the research. What do you hope to achieve by the end?  

Over the course of the semester [students] have three times to present publicly. They complete a Likert scale about their anxiety before they even get into the VR, then they practice [the speech] in virtual reality, and then to their classmates in person. After that, they fill that same Likert scale to see if their anxiety changed.

I’m doing it with Digital Communication and Media in the fall semester and then for Multimedia Production in the winter semester. There could be as many as 60 students involved—it depends if they’re up for it or not! 

Lyle Ruggles from CTLI worked with me to identify what I was trying to achieve. It started more ad hoc, just teachers adopting [VR] to see how it’d work in their classroom. Now, with the STAR Grant, I will hopefully get [reliable] results of how students feel about it. Did it help? Or did it get worse? [Laughs] 

We start in the middle of October, which gives time for students to get to know their classmates, try the technology first, and then see if it is actually effective in helping them reduce their anxiety. Students interested in participating will create a profile within the Ovation VR software program. From there, they will have a whole week to take out a VR headset from third-floor technologies. They can use the radio booths that are isolated and soundproofed, so they don’t have to worry about anybody else hearing [their] speech.  

Q. The research starts the first week of October. At this point, what does success look like to you?  

I think success, to me, looks like the students actually enjoying themselves while they’re participating in the project. And that maybe they learned something about themselves. Maybe it helped develop their confidence, took away the horrible feelings of butterflies before they stood up there, and hopefully gave them that extra boost—that going forward they’ll be able to do this without hesitation.  

Q. Is there anything particular that you’re excited about?  

I think it’s really neat to work with the software. I’m also excited to speak with the CEO of the company, Ovation. I hope to give him a call and include him in a press release to talk about this research. It’ll be neat to hear how it’s evolved over the years and what he’s excited about. 

Q. How do you plan to manage the research project with your current course load?  

Yeah, who knows? [Laughs] No, good question. I will hire three students in Digital Communication and Media, and next semester, I’ll have two Multimedia Production students. It’s nice that the STAR Grant enables me to do that.

Q. It seems like your research is integrated into the program you are already running. Do you have course release as well? 

The curriculum didn’t change at all. Really, it’s just an opportunity to dive into the research. I’m hopefully going to do that in May or December, when classes are done. Then I’ll start looking and comparing, looking at some trends or themes. Initially I didn’t ask for course release because this project dovetails with curriculum so well that I didn’t think I needed it… but I should have! Faculty should ask for course release. 

Q. The grant is for this academic year. Do you need to have something to show at the end of the year? Can you extend into the summer, or…? 

Well, it goes until the end of June, I believe. But as faculty, we’re on contract till the end of May, so I’ll try and wrap up everything by May and have something ready to go and present and write, maybe for conferences, maybe for our in-house conference with Camp Horizon and things like that. I’d love to get published. This is my third research project; I’d love to get the other two published, too! 

Q. What are some key features or functions of the VR platform you will be using?  

Apart from being easy to use, the software is really cool. It allows you to track your eyes and it pays attention— if you’re just looking at one side of the room, it encourages you to look to the other side. It also gets rid of your filler words. You can choose different environments, like a conference room or a hotel lobby. You can hold a tablet or notes in your hand or you can have a PowerPoint behind you. Another nice feature is the audience gives actual feedback and asks questions based on what you just presented. You can even define their politeness—they can be rude, they can be distracted, they can be checking their phones, they can be engaged. You can choose all those settings. And it critiques your speech when you’re done. 

Q. What challenges do you anticipate in integrating VR into the classroom? Do you anticipate any other challenges in doing the research?  

Only that the technology can always fail. But the software is pretty good! It can be picked up by anybody who doesn’t know any technology. With the STAR Grant, I was able to purchase new Oculus 3 headsets, the latest technology; slimmer and better resolution, which is nice.  

Besides technology, [a challenge] is to make sure [the results] are clear. Finding the themes or what comes out of the focus group discussions, that there’s something that’s tangible or that makes sense to people who read through the research afterwards––that it can make sense to them, and it is not muddled––is what I’m looking for. 

Q. How do you envision VR transforming the way students prepare for presentations compared to traditional methods?  

It’s just one other style of feedback. When we do public presentations [students] record themselves on their phones so they can see what they actually look like when they present. And then I give them feedback. This VR is just another kind of check to see, are there other ways that you could be refining your speech? The software gives this rating skill on five different elements of your speech and how well you’ve put it together. It’s another AI tool––this is the kinder gentler AI, something that is actually productive. I don’t like AI when it comes to student writing because I think it gets rid of creative thoughts and imagination. I think this is a nice easy entry way to understand how [students] can refine their presentation, and they’d might be surprised, like, “Oh, I didn’t think about how I could craft my speech that way to make it more appealing or engaging.” 

Q. What kind of data or feedback are you using to measure? You mentioned the Likert scale, is there anything else?  

Yeah—also audio recordings from focus groups, I’ll hopefully have transcripts generated from those. The plan is to do this in the classroom, in small groups. I’ll have guiding questions for them and then record those conversations. There’s a class of about 30 to 40 students, and they’re split in two, so it’s more manageable that way.  So together with the Likert scale, I’ll have qualitative and quantitative data. I thought that it was important to have both. 

“Don’t be afraid to ask the experts who are already here on campus. It’s a great team, and they’re really supportive.”

Q. What advice would you give other instructors considering applying for a STAR Grant? 

Use the resources that are there. Constance and her team with Jaddon have been great; just going through the editing process when I first pitched the idea. They really helped me refine it, to focus it on something that was more defined and would have more effective research, even talking about mixed methods, understanding, qualitative, quantitative. Just don’t be afraid to ask the experts who are already here on campus. It’s a great team, and they’re really supportive.  

Same with ethics. Make sure you get your ethics done early so that it’s taken care of.  

Last, just because it’s a short amount of time, make sure you try to get everything you can done as early as possible. Then, if you need to give yourself time at the beginning of a semester before you dive into research, that allows you to see how much time you have in the semester to work on the project.

Q. How do you see your project fitting into the broader SoTL at the Polytechnic? 

Well, it’s just been neat. My dean at the Center for Technology, Environment and Design has already drafted a press release for me; he’s been so supportive. Also, with the student core competencies across the Polytechnic, public speaking is a really integral skill, no matter what program you’re in— it fits across every single program here at the college.   

Thanks to Kris for sharing his time and research plans with us. Keep watching for a follow-up blog after the research period to hear from Kris about how it went!

For more information on the STAR Grant, visit our Star Grant FAQ page. Or to learn more about the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) at the Polytechnic in general, check out our SoTL page.