Part 2: Intro to VR Development in Unity

After training both the Seattle WA and Elizabeth NJ teachers in 3D development in Unity, it became apparent that the needs of the teachers for the VR development curriculum started to diverge. There are many potential topics to cover in a VR curriculum and each school and teacher will have a different set of priorities. Some teachers were more design or cinematic oriented and some were more focused on development. The Elizabeth NJ teachers are only ogligated to follow the 3D development class exactly for their students to get credit in our IT201 Information Design Techniques class if the students so choose to come to New Jersey Institeu of Technology. After some discussions, we thought it best to give the high school teachers enough training in VR development in Unity and let them pick their own projects and curriculum focus. We also came to this conclusion because the field is so new that there are no set rules, textbooks, and teaching standards set yet. This means that Part 2: Intro to VR Development in Unity will be focused more on getting the high school teachers up to speed on some of the newly defined best practices in design and development of VR experiences.

OVERVIEW - build | code | lectures

This course provides a practical overview of interactive design tools, techniques and principles for VR development using the Unity creation engine. This unit teaches project structure specific to VR development as students create and customize a VR environmental interaction experience using feature driven development. Subjects from 3D Development will be covered at a deeper level and include project management, user experience design, user flow diagramming, sprint based development, C# scripting, 3D computer graphics, user interface design and code integration, animation, rendering, physics, user input, and raycasting. New subjects specific to VR Development will be covered and include stereoscopic cameras, 3D user interfaces, hand controller input, position and rotation tracking of the head and hands, virtual avatars, movement and teleportation, ergonomics, human factors, simulation sickness, equipment maintenance, boundaries, and guardian systems.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Course is broken up into four sections, focusing on refining your skills in VR user experience design, 3D user interfaces, and advanced hand interactions with programming, 3D prototyping, and interaction design being present in all sections. Each section has 3-4 weeks of instruction lead project development with the last section giving freedom for the students to demonstrate their newly learned skill sets in a do it yourself project. Each week has three hours of class time, with 1.5 hours in live instruction, 1.5 hours in online instruction, and 2-3 hours of project work. Both live and online instruction are accompanied by exercises to practice the new knowledge. The only graded items in the class are the projects due at the end of each of the four sprints and one exam at the end of class.

WEEKLY SCHEDULE

FACE-TO-FACE

30-40 live instruction on material that works for live instruction.
30-40 minutes of exercise for students to prove they understand the material.
Need a sample project to lecture on and give exercise about.
(NOTE: If students cannot complete exercise that should be a hint to come to lab time.)

ONLINE

40-60 minute lecture video on material that is not suitable for live instruction, the details that can get boring for students, that some students may know already, and material that students need to process for short amount of times and then do themselves as they are learning
30 minute exercise for students to prove they understand the material
(NOTE: If students have issues with the lecture videos then they need to come into lab time)

PRE-REQUISITES

Introduction to 3D Development in Unity

Eric Nersesian

eric.nersesian@njit.edu