VR Workshop – Solent University

Virtual Umbrella’s founders regularly guest lecture at a variety of universities across the UK. Just before Christmas, Solent University invited the VU team to facilitate and run a VR workshop for their students.

We were asked to give a day-long guest workshop on ‘An Introduction to VR’. It was a great opportunity for the team to help educate, share knowledge, and see the students become open to all the possibilities that VR can provide.

The focus of the workshop was for students to:

• Gain insight into the immersive technology industry as a whole – the major players, the difference between VR, AR, 360, and the potential it holds for the future.

• Discover and understand some of the central formal differences between film and VR storytelling techniques (in particular the importance of the frame)

• Get a basic understanding of theoretical approaches towards narrative, framing, and immersive technology.

• Think creatively around the narrative limitations of 360 experiences, and get excited about the development of a new storytelling language for VR.

• Get hands-on experience in using virtual reality.

• Get creative with 360 technology.

• Go away with informed recommendations about how to learn more about virtual reality and the immersive technology industry.

This meant splitting the day between some more formal ‘lectures’ and a series of kick-ass practical tasks and challenges. In particular, we knew it was important that we backed up any theory or abstract concept we taught with some good old fashioned demos to make sure everything we said could translate into real, practical insights.