Blending on-campus and online experiences through the use of virtually immersive technologies

Abstract

Recently, there has been a great deal of attention put toward efforts to integrate teaching methodologies and strategies between face to face and online classrooms looking to maximize learning by combining delivery modalities. Studies point to students not only learning more when online capabilities were added to traditional courses, but also increasing their level of interaction thereby improving the students’ sense of satisfaction with the courses taken. However, these studies tend to isolate deliveries to either all online deliveries or to all on-campus classes and students, without taking into account the more recent movement of blending teaching methods that look to cross over the barriers between online and face to face students.

To meet some of the collaborative requirements for blending instruction, virtually immersive environments are beginning to show promise as an interactive communication media that can facilitate the needs of several communities including e-learning, distance education and corporate training. So the question was posed - what happens when online students are given the opportunity, through the use of virtually immersive technologies, to engage with students attending traditional on-campus sessions? Thus, the purpose of this case study is to evaluate the use of virtually immersive technologies as a platform for the conduct of synchronous and asynchronous classroom activities. This article also presents the framework for conducting an undergraduate level ‘Technology Project Management’ course that includes delivery approaches to students from both online (Distance Education) class offerings and on-campus (Face-to-face) class offerings.