Human 9 Instructional Design

  Hypothesis A Narrative (Cinematic) HMD VR Immersive experience is more effective than other modes of TEL Delivery because experiential, interactive, open-ended exploration leads to highly effective knowledge acquisition, retention and application in practice, when engaging with story-based mental health learning content.  more effective than passive learning.  supports training practitioners knowledge acquisition, retention and application of challenging mental health topics (Example opioid addiction) learning content more effectively Research Question Can HMD VR Environments be designed to safely immerse mental Healthcare practitioners in learning experience that explores challenging mental health topics more effectively than alternative modes of delivery ?  Trauma and Safe Immersion  HMD VR (Cinematic) Narrative Design  Research Location    Located in the triangulation between :  1. TEL Design : Mental Healthcare and Wellbeing Training and Development  2. Games Design : HMD VR Envi

To experience challenging narrative in a safe way, I am thinking about design decisions that would positively support the affects of protection, agency and control. Decision that foucs on how to protect the  learner from the negative affects of the experience. Considering things like ‘prospect and refuge’ in addition to or instead of, user interface design.  I will need to consider Narrative and how this is directed by the VR Environment design, considering any negative consequences if the immersion on the player. I am initially thinking about two design solutions that would create a ‘safe space’ for the player and also allow the player to exit the screen immediately they no longer want to be there, so for example adding a visible UI that includes an emergency exit button (other than removing the HMD). This may afford the player a sense of safe detachment and agency to control their experience. 

 Beginning with the GDC presentation on Spatial Cinematography, I am going to focus on how virtual spaces use ‘prospect and refuge’ in the design of a game environment.  I want to look at this to follow on from the previous post where I considered how an environment affects a negative emotion in a player in horror games.  I am interested in whether prospect and refuge could support the player in helping them to feel safe when immersed in a challenging story that deals with a serious mental health condition such as substance abuse. The challenge is to provide a safe space for the observer without them feeling too vulnerable to the scene they are viewing. I think that the 4th wall would usually provide this protection in a screen based mode of presentation.  Because of this, I am looking at examples of prospect and refuge in apps that support mental health in virtual reality experiences and how they do this. To begin with I am looking at VR experiences like Guided Meditation VR (Oculus).

  During the pandemic, I was very thankful to living where I live in the heart of the welland valley; a heartbeat away from open green spaces, rolling hills, brooks and valleys. I was able to get out daily and walk the dog, which greatly helped.  Approaching a research methodology    In thinking about my own experience, and those I talk with in a personal and professional capacity; I am acutely aware of maintaining objectivity in a research process. This is challenging to do, but is possible when taking an academic approach.  I am not an expert in mental health but I do know how to construct a virtual environment. My claim to authority is that I have been researching immersion and using virtual tools since 2007. I can construct a virtual experiences using unity game engine and can compare virtual environments with those I have worked in, in the natural world. I do so to  examine things like spatial human interaction and navigation while experimenting with, and thinking about how I use,

  Looking at Screen Based and HMD VR, I began by looking at faiths Horror Design toolkit. As Mason Smith of Airdorf games talked about story and affect, in his horror game development, I considered that as horror games are intentionally scary and frightening, What affects are deployed in terms of mechanics, narrative and affect ?  It could be problematic, thinking about fear inducing games as entertainment. Horror games could be considered exploitative or maligning of mental health conditions but in these instances players are choosing to be frightened as they feel as if they are in safe place in reality. Given that this is a difficult thing to think about, I still think that the horror game genre has some really valuable information in them that could be used to design positive experiences, or conversely, presenting negative mental states in a safe way.  What do you want the players story to be and how do you want them to be affected ?  Protection: In The video Spatial Cinematography,

 If you are interested in how mental health can be portrayed in games in a less direct way; check out Sea Of Solitude.  The game represents feelings of loneliness and depression through game design. 

   GDC: Lecture  Stories that Haunt and Heal: Mental Health and Game Narrative  In this lecture, 3 women talked about their lived experience of Emotional Abuse, Disordered Eating and Sexual Assault.  The apps are informed by game design principles and delivered through screen-based tech but could not be considered ‘games’.  The talk focused on the following:  Mental Health : Serious Games that engage with mental health issues in a non-triggering way.  PTSD & Anxiety : The Body in Shakespeare Park - Flashbacks (Affairs/abuse/sexual behaviour) Domestic Abuse : (Including Financial and Emotional Abuse) survivors of abuse  Disordered Eating : Anorexia written in 2nd person, relationship issues.  Sexual Assault : players will have a strong feeling that the female protagonist has healed herself.  E.g The body in Shakespeare Park - Lilybard.com  In the Keeper’s shadow - Lonelyegg.com/games/itks/ Shrinking Pains - Bit.ly/ShrinkingPains This led me to thinking about a serious game that focu

  GDC Research : Narrative Design, Spatial Design and learning through exploring (Experiential learning theory)   Today I have mostly been.. watching GDC Lectures :)  I enjoyed having a browse on YouTube looking at lectures from GDC on VR, Narrative and Environment Design looking at Narrative in TEL Healthcare as ‘informed by games theory’.. while eating some mcvities digestive biscuits and drinking tea.. A perfect Sunday well spent.  I am picking up the threads from the game-based apps I developed in my MA Creative App Development - Falmouth University, to focus on how to design spaces to support Narrative (Cinematography) VR Development, moving on to Narrative Design for VR and then finally looking at general principles in designing Narrative for games. I have made a few notes from the video, so I can form my own set of basic principles that I can use as a guide when designing a VR Narrative Experience.  I will need to add research on Narrative in TEL Healthcare and Mobile learning T

When designing the virtual environment in Lunarium VR (on my MA) I got really interested in how environment design can have a direct impact on narrative direction in terms of ‘spatial cinematography’. Having worked in NHS and private medical training delivery (for a relatively short time compared to others), it struck me how important narrative is in healthcare training. Often SME’s would talk about the patient and learner journey.  In addition to story telling, I have always been fascinated by the sense of proprioception (The sense of self in space and time) I have explored in my own experimental work since 2007.  I have produced various short animated content in natural environments, in the studio and in CGI software, while at the same time noting the response of my physical senses.  Motion Capture : reenacting and capturing actions from activity in natural environments Way finding at grinsbrook dale, Edale.  Black mirror experiments - immersive perspective shots.  Signs of processes