Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/25717
Title: Addressing cross cultural integration through a virtual reality experience
Authors: Scicluna, David
Keywords: Virtual reality in education -- Malta
Multicultural education -- Malta
Immigrants -- Malta
Issue Date: 2017
Abstract: Classes are becoming increasingly multi ethnic and it is often the case that teachers may not be effectively trained to handle such new multiethnic classes. Our project involves the development of an immersive virtual reality experience for teachers. This will take the user through actual experiences of a child from a migrant background with the aim of supporting empathy. Therefore, the VR headset can easily become an empathy machine capable of influencing the perception of the users. The success of such systems is centered around the principles of immersion and interaction. The adequate use of both will determine the overall outcome and effectively define the impact of the virtual reality experience. Through using the appropriate methodologies alongside the necessary hardware, it was envisioned that by the end of the project a fully working prototype would be created. This could then be evaluated to see whether any effect was present on the user. The main objectives of the project were to find new innovative techniques to combine interaction with different types of user interfaces, which would essentially recreate empathy. The latter were mainly achieved throughout the project Evaluation of the latter yielded very interesting results. It could be seen that the presented experience provided the necessary level of immersion that it altered the user’s emotions and perception. This was an indicator that the hypothesis can be proven through further testing and analysis. All possible future methods for testing were duly listed and their relevance explained. Alongside this all possible future improvements to the experience were clearly listed. These improvements would increase the overall quality of the experience and improve the effect it can have on users. Further to this all it was concluded that virtual reality can have effect on user perceptions but further study must be done into the extent of such effect.
Description: B.SC.IT(HONS)
URI: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar//handle/123456789/25717
Appears in Collections:Dissertations - FacICT - 2017
Dissertations - FacICTCIS - 2017

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
17BITCB004.pdf
  Restricted Access
2.49 MBAdobe PDFView/Open Request a copy


Items in OAR@UM are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.