Justin Brown, Adrian Barragan, and Jaime Garcia Prudencio
Brown – Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences
College of Agricultural Sciences
2020 TLT Faculty Fellow
Focus Area: Student Engagement
Barragan – Assistant Clinical Professor
Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences
College of Agricultural Sciences
2020 TLT Faculty Fellow
Focus Area: Student Engagement
Garcia Prudencio – Assistant Teaching Professor
Spanish in Agriculture
College of Agricultural Sciences
2020 TLT Faculty Fellow
Focus Area: Student Engagement
Brown, Barragan, and Garcia Prudencio intend to apply immersive technology to veterinary and animal sciences education materials to create engaging coursework. The three instructors have outlined a series of 360-degree videos that aim to give students in Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy (VBSC 421) access to course content they would not otherwise receive.
“The lab component of VBSC 421 trains students to identify anatomic structures and how they relate to function,” said Brown. “They’re exposed to a wide diversity of animal taxa at various stages of the lab; however, most of the dissections focus on the lamprey, shark and domestic cat. Immersive technology can help provide a more engaging level of exposure to large animal anatomy like horses, pigs, cows and deer.”
Along with their course-specific immersive content, Barragan, Brown, Garcia Prudencio, and the rest of their team will develop a step-by-step protocol for including 360-degree video in coursework. The instruction document, including photos and short videos, will be available to faculty across Penn State upon request. They will also survey students to assess their perceptions of, and satisfaction with, the immersive content.
The Team
Dan Getz – Project Lead
Patrick Mitchell