Immersive Visualization Institute

Digital Scholarship Lab 360 Room For the third year, the Graduate School, together with Abrams Planetarium, MSU Libraries, and the MSU Museum, made it possible for graduate students and faculty mentors to explore MSU's “ecosystem” of immersive visualization technologies. This ecosystem includes the Abrams Planetarium Sky Theater, MSU Libraries Digital Scholarship Lab’s 360 Room, and the MSU Museum’s Science On a Sphere. These technologies offer unique opportunities for teaching, learning, and research and are available to MSU students and faculty members.

Participation in the one-week "Immersive Visualization Institute (IVI)" was open to applicants across the entire university and required completion of an application. A $500 fellowship was awarded to each graduate student. This hybrid summer institute prepared participants to create content for the Science On a Sphere, Planetarium, and the 360 Room at the Digital Scholarship Lab. While the affordances of these technologies differ, the relevant approaches and production processes significantly overlap. Participants investigated effective teaching strategy, planning and logistics considerations, and accessibility issues related to the technologies. In addition to learning about the three main technologies, participants received instruction in 360 Camera use, choropleth mapping, video editing, and Google Cardboard. Special speakers led discussions about pedagogy and real-life experiences using the technologies with students.

IVI helps make this technological ecosystem accessible to new MSU audiences, which directly leads to new course integrations and helps develop deeper relationships among units across campus. The nine graduate student participants represent a variety of colleges, departments, and interests. Their final projects represented creative uses of the technologies that incorporated their research work, teaching, and artistic work.