UCC’s VR program, and “A Day in the Life of a UCC Boy”

Ryan Archer, ICT integrator and design teacher, and David Crawford, film teacher, began working on developing a VR program at UCC in 2018–2019 with funding allocated from the Principal’s Innovation Fund. 

Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated, immersive digital environment that enables users to interact with and experience a computer-generated world through specialized hardware and software. The educational possibilities and experiential applications for students — of all abilities and interests — seem endless.

“With the Principal’s Innovation Fund,” Crawford says, “we had equipment that allowed us to do things that we couldn’t have done without the funding.” As the school’s first foray into VR, they were able to purchase an Instapro 360 (a top-of-the-line 8K virtual reality camera) and two GoPro 360s (smaller mobile VR cameras). 

Archer says, “I was interested in how VR might be used beyond video games and simulations, how VR, AR [augmented reality], MR [mixed reality] technology might be applied in an educational setting, and how we might be creators rather than consumers of the media.” 

“For me,” says Crawford, “it was a way to find another avenue for students to tell their stories and to explore what VR does with storytelling. What we thought might be interesting was to look at a day in the life of a student and see if we could tell that story…. Our audience for the project was prospective students and families.” 

They chose a student who was rehearsing for Henry IV at the time and filmed a choreographed sword-fighting sequence from Part 1 between Douglas, Hotspur and Prince Hal. Crawford and Archer also worked with Dr. Dale Churchward, former director of co-curricular theatre, to film content showing the student in a classroom environment. After editing and production, students and faculty were able to wear the VR goggles to experience this day in the life of a student. For the sword-fighting sequence, it was as if they were bystanders in the street. 

The classroom portion results were good, Archer says, but for the theatre sequence, “the actors who performed were blown away by the experience, and we were very happy with the result.”

The pandemic slowed development of other VR projects through 2022, but the program continues to expand to other areas of the school. For example, the fund enabled the purchase of a set of VR headsets for use at the Prep. Says Archer, “We’re always looking for opportunities to use VR in different areas of the school.”