"Science communicators are essential for interfacing between scientists and public audiences" (Borchelt, 2001)
Introduction
The following research is summarized from the article "Labs and Landscapes Virtual Reality: Student-Created Forest Conservation Tours for Informal Public Engagement" published in the Journal of Applied Communications for the Association for Communication Excellence. This article and its findings were published in 2022.
This study was performed to examine how developing and hosting virtual reality (VR) tours could serve as a way for science communication graduate students to practice their multimedia and engagement skills through communication with the public about climate change. The team provided literature reviews including Innovative Teaching for 21st Century Science Communication, Climate Change Communication, and Virtual Reality (VR) for Informal Science Engagement (ISE). These literature reviews provided foundation for the reasons why this study was performed, the need for advanced science communication, climate change communication specifically and how virtual reality can help to communicate science literacy effectively.
Methods
Graduate students created 360* VR Conservation Conversation tours for Streaming Science, a student-driven science communication platform and programming in the University of Florida (UF) Department of Agricultural Education and Communication (AEC). The VR tours included images and content about a local research forest, environmental conservation, and the effects of climate change. Additionally, the students implemented the tours in three public locations and administered a survey to participants for their climate change attitudes.
Data Collection & Analysis
Students delivered the tours by reading a script, a compilation of the students’ writing while the participants simultaneously explored a 360* forest photo tour through VR headsets. They collected three forms of data: a) graduate students’ pre-reflections before giving the VR tours and post-reflections after the experience (qualitative), b) transcripts of audio recordings of the think-aloud discussions between the graduate student VR tour developers and public participants (qualitative), and c) a post-VR survey about community participants’ climate change attitudes and VR tour perceptions (quantitative).
They then analyzed the data in three sequential steps: a) a qualitative analysis of the participant think-aloud discussions, b) qualitative analysis of the student reflections, and c) analysis of descriptive statistics for the survey results. The data were integrated by comparing results from the quantitative and qualitative data to have a more holistic understanding of the phenomena than if quantitative and qualitative data were reported alone.
Results
RQ1: Graduate Students’ Experiences Implementing Tours with Public Audiences
The graduate students' results showed increased self-efficacy as well as being able to showcase learned content. This is valuable because the graduate students' pre-surveys showed low self-efficacy when working with a public audience and communicating science. The post surveys and transcripts taken during the VR tours show that the students overcame their initial inhibitions and grew confidence and self-efficacy with science communication. The students were able to successfully talk about forest and forest conservation to the public audience. This skillset of increased science communication confidence is vital to preparing students to engage with various audiences on scientific issues.
RQ 2: The Influence of Physical Place and Virtual Place on Discourse
Through VR, public participants virtually explored a local research forest not typically open to visitors. The themes that emerged from the student-public discourses from participating in the VR tours included: exploring a new place and being cognitively overwhelmed. Participants at all three locations had various questions and recounted holistic and detailed observations of the virtual space, stating how they felt when seeing a virtual space: “Looks like someone is trying to make you cross that tree,” and “I see a jungle” compared to others who noticed minute details like, “I see someone’s hand.” Participants noted looking at details and noticing items unnatural to the space, like a camera glare and the foresters’ vehicles.
In all three informal settings, participants showed signs of being cognitively overwhelmed with the combination of visual and audible content, especially when looking at a new scene and when student guides presented statistics. Researchers observed that the student guides had to repeat information, especially the script that contained numbers/statistics about the content.
RO 1: Public Attitudes about VR, Climate Change, and Forest Conservation
After engaging in the VR forest tour, public participants voluntarily consented and answered a short touchscreen survey via iPads. Survey results showed public participants’ perceived learning about climate change and forest conservation as important. They also perceived their knowledge increased about VR after taking the virtual tour and would likely recommend VR to their friends.
Conclusions
Students increased their self-efficacy when communicating science to public audiences and displayed their own observational learning while working with various audiences and environmental education.Increasing students’ self-efficacy in communicating science is vital since the next generation of science communicators should learn how to explore contentious scientific topics with various public audiences (Bray et al., 2012). The public audiences felt climate change and forest conservation were important but did not agree or disagree that humans could prevent climate change. They also indicated their knowledge increased about VR, and they would likely recommend it to their friends. The quantitative and qualitative data converged to suggest that many participants retained content from tours. However, they blended previous knowledge of environmental conservation behaviors into their VR tour learning, such as not littering. Additionally, the participants discussed their perceived ability, or self-efficacy, to conserve forests as a communal activity, not from their individual behaviors.
Recommendations
VR in informal learning settings can allow individuals to explore a space not readily accessible to the public and foster discussion on local environmental practices and issues. The discourse surrounding the virtual forest tours indicated the audiences were curious about VR and the content presented in the tours. Communication and extension professionals can use VR technology to help familiarize their communities with environmental issues, create environments for people to engage in learning, and provide access to places not readily accessible. The use of VR in various informal learning environments can assist in communicating local issues and promote dialogue with community members.
Communication instructors can utilize VR to teach students cutting-edge photography and technology skills, and how to apply VR for public engagement about environmental science topics in informal learning environments. The researchers recommend that participants find specific details within images in future VR tours for a complete immersion into virtual space and scientific content. Other recommendations include reducing the cognitive load of VR participants, limiting the information in a space, or giving more time for independent exploration. Additional recommendations include having a subject matter expert or scientists present to help answer questions to clarify information and answer participants’ more in-depth questions.
References
All of the above information and photos are produced and provided by: Labs and Landscapes Virtual Reality: Student-Created Forest Conservation Tours for Informal Public Engagement - Journal of Applied Communications: Vol. 106: Iss. 1. https://doi.org/10.4148/1051-0834.2395
Whitney Stone University of Florida
Jamie Loizzo University of Florida
Jacqueline Aenlle University of Florida
Peyton Beattie University of Florida
About the Author:
Marisa Crowhurst
Marisa is a senior at the University of Florida, finishing her Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural Education and Communication with a specialization in Communication and Leadership Development, through the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. She is also an AKC preservation breeder of standard smooth dachshunds and has a passion for agricultural and natural resources communication.