EXPLORING THE EFFECT OF IMMERSIVE VR ON STUDENT-TUTOR COMMUNICATION IN ARCHITECTURE DESIGN CRITS

Résumé En

Using digital tools like immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) reduce the carbon footprint by providing collocated and remote communication through virtual design studios. By providing a sense of presence in a digital display, iVR systems impact student-tutor communication during design critiques or crits. Research lacks studies articulating how iVRs change crits' communication to increase the ability to integrate iVRs as educational media and promote a quality education in inter-university studios. To this end, this study explores the cognitive structure of student-tutor communication during collocated architecture crits using iVR and non-immersive media. We employed protocol analysis to analyze divergent thinking by tracking the distribution of First Occurrences of design issues. Combining protocol analysis with Natural Language Processing, we explored the size of the design space generated during the crits. Results from a case study that includes twelve crits from three students show an increase in students' exploration of the design space and divergent thinking in the iVR crits, providing evidence that iVR enhances learners' communication. iVRs can be integrated to support remote design studios without the generation of carbon due to physical travel.