The intensive series of fourteen monthly virtual workshops (January 2022-December 2023) and two four-day in-person workshops at the University of Colorado\u2013Colorado Springs (summer 2022) and Vanderbilt University (summer 2023) will ensure the project meets its primary goal of shepherding humanists through a comprehensive immersive reality curriculum culminating in our participants\u2019 delivery of their own substantive projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each virtual workshop, conducted on Saturdays to accommodate the work schedules of participants, will be bifurcated into a morning session (9 am to 12 noon), followed by a break for lunch, and an afternoon session (1pm to 4pm). Morning sessions, directed by Dr. Lynn Ramey, will be dedicated to seminar presentations and discussions of thematic, theoretical, and methodological issues associated with immersive technologies and the Global Middle Ages. Our invited speakers will play prominent teaching and facilitation roles in these workshops so that participants can explore issues such as digital storytelling, immersive worlds as cultural patrimony, neuropsychological considerations for mimicking the real world, game design and processes, and issues with representing diverse peoples. Prior to each workshop, participants are expected to complete a syllabus of readings as well as to have prepared relevant assignments (descriptive and analytical documentation, virtual model constructions, etc.). Afternoon sessions, taught by Dr. Martinez-Davila, will be dedicated to direct instruction using SketchUp Pro as a digital tool to construct cultural artifacts, objects, structures, and environments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two summer in-person workshops will focus on the advancement of each participant\u2019s immersive world constructions. Travel airfare\/ground transportation, hotel, and meals will be paid for each participant and the non-resident co-PI. The Institute\u2019s virtual curriculum maximizes digital instruction by drawing on Dr. Martinez-Davila\u2019s extensive expertise in digital education and we will apply OLC\u2019s Quality Course Teaching and Instructional Practice Scorecard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Further, given the unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Institute is perfectly adapted to facilitate our participants\u2019 full engagement regardless of their ability to travel; the majority of the Institute will be in a virtual setting and our summer in-person programs can easily be adapted to the virtual learning space. To plan for unexpected participant Internet connectivity issues, all virtual workshops will be recorded (via Zoom) so that absent participants can review any content they missed. In the unlikely occurrence of a UCCS or VU Internet service disruption, virtual workshops will be rescheduled and hosted on the Saturday following the originally planned date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n