Unit 2 - VR Skills Development
Unit 2: VR Skills Development
2.4 Exploring Additional Apps
Once you have completed the setup of your headset and the tutorials, the real fun begins. Now is the time you can start exploring the content that is available through your headset. The Oculus Quest has a variety of free and paid apps that are available through its store. I would recommend starting there because these apps are easy to download and start exploring. In the store, you will find descriptions of each app, comfort ratings, reviews and other details. If you are concerned about motion sickness, I would recommend starting with apps that are rated comfortable to see how VR affects you.
There are many apps in the store that may have some bearing on different aspects of social work teaching or practice, but you may need to be creative in how you tie them to what you are doing in your classes. For instance, there are apps that might help with anxiety, such as virtual meditation or virtual tai chi. There are apps that you may use with clients that are homebound and feel disconnected from their community such as social apps or travel apps which will allow them to explore the world or virtual worlds. There are physical fitness apps that you may be able to use with clients that are having trouble sticking to physical therapy regimens.
As you are browsing through the store consider:
Are any of the apps applicable to content areas that you teach
Are there experiences that you could build off of to tie into your content
Could you have your students explore any of the apps to see how they could be tied to their future practice
Could you see yourself developing something similar to use in your course
This will help prepare you for the next unit in this mini-course.
Here are some app suggestions to get you started, along with how you might fit it into your course curriculum. I would recommend starting with one of the first two apps, to help reinforce your comfort with using your headset and the controllers. Once you feel more comfortable with navigating these virtual environments, I would recommend trying out one of the social applications to see how people are using VR to meet virtually. You can also just dive into anything in the store that piques your interest.
Notes on Blindness is an interesting VR experience. It will give you a sense of how immersive VR is really different from other types of media we consume. It is also an interesting example of how you can use VR to build empathy for specific client populations. You will find it in the quest store for free.
From the developer:
"VR journey into a world beyond sight. In 1983, after decades of steady deterioration, John Hull became totally blind. To help him make sense of the upheaval in his life, he began documenting his experiences on audio cassette. These original diary recordings form the basis of this project, an interactive nonfiction using new forms of storytelling to explore his cognitive and emotional experience of blindness. "
Traveling while Black is another immersive VR experience which you can download from the Quest app store.
From the developer:
"Traveling While Black is a cinematic VR experience that immerses the viewer in the long history of restriction of movement for black Americans and the creation of safe spaces in our communities. "
VRChat is a free multiplayer online environment. You can connect with other people, explore virtual environments, play games attend concerts and even do virtual karaoke.
This app could be useful for purposes of self care. You could also use it with clients that may be experiencing social isolation or have social phobias.
Spatial is a free VR meeting space. In it you can meet with your class, present slides, show videos and brainstorm using sticky notes and whiteboards.
This app would allow you to conduct synchronous class sessions, office hours, or allow students to virtually practice role plays.
You may need to find someone else to explore this with to get a real experience of how the social aspects of this app work.
Engage is another platform that you can use for synchronous class sessions. You can also use this to create your own VR experiences for your students. You can also use it to record VR lessons and interactive experiences.
Engage does require a subscription but they do have a free version to try it out. It is worth exploring to help better understand some of the possibilities.
You can find out more about them on their website, including their pricing plans.
Finding Additional Content
After reviewing the content in the store, you may find that you want more options. Additional apps may be available through sideloading them onto your quest. Sideloading is a way that developers can make their apps available without having to go through the strict review process that Oculus requires to get apps into their store. This process is a bit trickier to do than just finding things in the store, requiring you to download a PC/Mac app and then connecting your headset to your PC/Mac to install the app. To learn more about how to do this see Guide on How to Sideload Apps onto the Quest and Quest 2.
Another option that was just recently released (Feb 2021) is the App Lab. This process is a middle ground between getting apps into the store and using Sidequest. To find out more about how to access apps through the app lab check out How to find and install app lab apps.
One final option for additional content is using the Oculus Link system to access Rift and Rift(s) applications through your PC. In order to do this you do need a high powered gaming PC that will support the Oculus Software. To find out more about Oculus Link and to see the PC requirements check out the Oculus Link Support Page.