The main goal of this course is to provide you with detailed understanding of design, use and system issues in Virtual Environments relevant to Human Factors, and prepare you to be able to manage the Human Factors evaluation of Virtual Environment (VE) systems.

The course has two objectives:

1. Provide a comprehensive knowledge related to the topics of our interest. You should become familiar with major issues in Human Factors relevant to Virtual Environments - this is the primary goal of this course. The approach that is favored in the course and which is integrated throughout the course activities, is to help you form your own opinion about the topics and become the true independent thinkers.

2. Build the academic skills. In order to help you come out as independent thinkers and have a well rounded set of academic skills necessary for your future careers, this course provides a set of different activities that build and nurture your ability to articulate and argue for your individual position, as well as comment, discuss and evaluate other people's work. Several types of classes have been framed in this light to support the materials and topics that we will study:
   • presentations,
   • paper reviews,
   • class discussions,
   • research paper on chosen topic,
   • panel/advocacy sessions,
   • exploratory lab sessions.

Topics to be Covered

1. Characteristics of VE,
2. Human Factor Issues in VE,
3. Perceptual Modalities,
4. Visual Modality and Visualization,
5. Aural Modality,
6. Vestibular and Kinesthetic Modality,
7. Haptics and Force Feedback Modality,
8. Multimodal, Hybrid and Augmented Reality Systems,
9. Representing People,
10. Interaction Techniques,
11. Navigation and Locomotion,
12. Spatial Awareness and Wayfinding,
13. Object Manipulation,
14. Latency,
15. Performance Efficiency and Measurement/Evaluation,
16. Usability and Virtual Environments,
17. Health and Safety Issues: Cybersickness (e.g. Simulator Sickness),
18. Immersion, Presence and Co-Presence,
19. Social Aspects in VE and Gaming Systems,
20. Multiuser Environments and Collaboration in VE,
21. Ethics in VE.

Themes

The area of Human Factors in VE is rapidly expanding, and some topics are still in a process of their more formal definition (like Ethics in VE) - the breath and the range of the themes one could include in this domain is considerably wide and therefore it is not possible to integrate all of them in limited number of hours we have assigned for the course. The course and course activities will therefore present a selection of topics from this domain. The choice of topics and the way we present them is guided by the following criteria:

1. They provide well rounded understanding of the domain, and raise the awareness about other topics not covered in details in the course,
2. We make clear distinction between what would be an ideal solutions (a vision of an ideal VE) and what are currently available solutions, and discuss the research efforts that need to be invested to bridge a gap between the two,
3. This domain is characterized with very few absolute rules, and it is not so rare that one will find even contradictory opinions on some issue. Our class activities and individual assignments will help you organize and structure the material, and be able to deal with different issues that at first sight may seem to be unimportant or simple, but they turned out to be quite complex, interconnected and perhaps even counterintuitive,
4. 4. Wherever possible, we will cover the topics that support student theses and research interests, and make connections with the professional expertise and interests that students have.

In order to reflect the ever expanding nature of the research in this domain, the materials presented in the course are revised each year and some new topics get introduced in the set.

Course Requirements

The basic requirements for this course are as follows:

1. Class discussions: This course will not have quizzes. Instead we opted for more interactive form of student knowledge assessment. Several discussion classes have been designed around selected topics where each time one theme we learned more about in most recent presentation Ð that theme will be explored and debated in the class. There are two goals that need to be accomplished: firstly these classes are the opportunities for the students to make a connection between the material in the paper they reviewed and the material presented for the same topics that far, and secondly to add the supplementary material that any student found while researching the topic him/herself. The students are responsible to provide the material they see relevant for the class, and the instructor will coordinate everyone's input and the debate.
2. Panel/advocacy contribution: Each student will take a part in one panel discussion as a presenter/arguer; in all other sessions of this kind he/she will be a member of audience that will pose the questions to the presenters. The themes will be given in advance and you will be able to choose the session in which you will be one of the presenters (mutual agreement on who is going to present particular session has to be reached within the group itself). The time allotted for each panelist is 10 minutes, and the remaining class time will be reserved for the discussion with the audience.
3. Paper reviews: For some presentation days, whether they are led by the instructor or by your colleague, you will be responsible to prepare a short paper review. The paper review will be your personal commentary about the topic, the issues and the content of that paper. This is designed for you to familiarize yourself with the theme that will be presented on the day, and to have more than a very basic level of understanding about the topic.
4. Individual presentation: The course with start with a set of overview discussions and lectures given by the instructor. This segment will be followed with the presentations prepared by the students, and the course will be concluded with another set of presentations prepared by the instructor.
5. Research paper: You will:
   • Write a research paper on a topic of your choice (topic should be related to Human Factors in Virtual Environments), or
   • Conduct or participate in an experiment related to human factors issues in virtual environments, and write research paper about that study.
   You will have time to decide which of these two choices you prefer doing for the course. All students are allowed and encouraged to do something related to their thesis research if that work is applicable to this course.

Laboratory Sessions

Laboratory Sessions are scheduled for this course. As an integral part of the laboratory sessions we plan to get acquainted with the VE systems used at the MOVES for different research activities.