Abstract
AudienceMR is designed as a multi-user mixed reality space that seamlessly extends the local user space to become a large, shared classroom where some of the audience members are seen seated in a real space, and more members are seen through an extended portal. AudienceMR can provide a sense of the presence of a large-scale crowd/audience with the associated spatial context. In contrast to virtual reality (VR), however, with mixed reality (MR), a lecturer can deliver content or conduct a performance from a real, actual, comfortable, and familiar local space, while interacting directly with real nearby objects, such as a desk, podium, educational props, instruments, and office materials. Such a design will elicit a realistic user experience closer to an actual classroom, which is currently prohibitive owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper validated our hypothesis by conducting a comparative experiment assessing the lecturer’s experience with two independent variables: (1) an online classroom platform type, i.e., a 2D desktop video teleconference, a 2D video screen grid in VR, 3D VR, and AudienceMR, and (2) a student depiction, i.e., a 2D upper-body video screen and a 3D full-body avatar. Our experiment validated that AudienceMR exhibits a level of anxiety and fear of public speaking closer to that of a real classroom situation, and a higher social and spatial presence than 2D video grid-based solutions and even 3D VR. Compared to 3D VR, AudienceMR offers a more natural and easily usable real object-based interaction. Most subjects preferred AudienceMR over the alternatives despite the nuisance of having to wear a video see-through headset. Such qualities will result in information conveyance and an educational efficacy comparable to those of a real classroom, and better than those achieved through popular 2D desktop teleconferencing or immersive 3D VR solutions.
Highlights
Since the arrival of COVID-19, classroom and conference activities via video teleconferencing have become the unwanted norm
Desktop 2D Zoom like teleconferencing (DTZ) showed the lowest levels of anxiety and fear compared to the baseline offline lecture (p < 0.001) (p < 0.001) and to audience MR (AMR) (p = 0.001) (p < 0.001)
Zoom-like grid in VR (ZVR) showed a lower level of anxiety by State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA) (p = 0.047) (p = 0.049)
Summary
Since the arrival of COVID-19, classroom and conference activities via video teleconferencing (such as Zoom [1]) have become the unwanted norm (see Figure 1). The interaction will be more natural with the AudienceMR in comparison to a VR counterpart in the sense that the user can make use of objects as achieved in the real world, for example, looking at paper printouts, interacting with devices/computers (e.g., managing presentations, playing videos, or making annotations), and making bodily gestures, which would mostly be accomplished indirectly using a controller in VR This article expects these distinguishing qualities to bring about an improved lecturer/performer experience, leading to a more effective delivery of content, lecturer satisfaction, and ultimate benefits for the students/audience. Note that this study only investigates the experience of the content deliverer (i.e., lecturer) rather than that of the students/audience
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