Measuring the impact of 360° videography in Antarctica for educational purposes

• Main Author: Lindeman, Robert W.
• Language: English
• Published: University of Canterbury 2018
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10092/16125

This report surveys the main issues and approaches to measuring presence as they relate to user experience design in virtual reality. The main focus is on how to evaluate the impact of using 360° video to capture and replay subject matter experts talking about specific topics in situ in Antarctica. Presence is typically defined simply as the sense of 'being there' in a virtual environment. Research over the past 20+ years, however, as shown that there are several important aspects of overall presence, and that each one requires careful evaluation. The three main aspects are Place Illusion (the feeling of being in the environment), Copresence Illusion (the feeling of being with others in the environment) and Plausibility Illusion (the coherence and believability of the environment itself). Three complimentary methods for measuring all aspects of presence are discussed, including questionnaires, physiological measures and behavioural observations. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, and it is advised that combining them should lead to the most robust measures of the impact of 360° video for Antarctic content and beyond.