VR at UARK Hosts Tricia Thrasher, Features Presentations by Faculty and Staff

On Tuesday, Sept. 24, Curtis Maughan (World Languages and Digital Humanities Studio) and Trevor Francis (Student Success) hosted "VR (Virtual Reality) at UARK," a collection of presentations on current applications of virtual reality at the U of A. The event included seven speakers from various departments on campus and special guest presenter Dr. Tricia Thrasher, director of research at Immerse VR. More than 45 students, faculty, staff and U of A community members were in attendance. 

The lunch event (catered by Ozark Catering) featured a 10-minute presentation by Thrasher on her work at Immerse, including research on the growth and continued projected growth of the use of VR in higher education, and plans for select Spanish and French courses at the U of A to utilize Immerse as a complement to their curriculum.  

Curtis Maughan, WLDH Studio Director, presents his ongoing curriculum and research on VR, as well as the WLLC partnership with Immerse.

After Thrasher's presentation and Q&A, seven faculty and staff members gave three-minute presentations on their engagement with VR; here is the complete line-up of speakers:  

• Trevor Francis, associate vice provost, Student Success  
• Dave Fredrick, associate professor, classical studies and game design 
• Michael Hall, doctoral candidate, comparative literature and cultural studies 
• Mary Lacity, Distinguished Professor, Sam M. Walton College of Business 
• Vince Capps, application and workflow analyst, vice chancellor of Student Affairs 
• Curtis Maughan, director, World Languages & Digital Humanities Studio, WLLC
• Stephanie Kay Brown, outreach and programming coordinator, Mullins Library 
• Lesley Speller and Alicia Estes, eLearning developers, Global Campus

Tricia Thrasher, Director of Research at Immerse VR, presents her research on the rising popularity of VR post-pandemic and projected increase in popularity in higher education institutions by the end of 2024.

The diverse collection of speakers addressed topics ranging from VR applications for student success (Francis, Capp) to course curriculum and research that explore VR (Maughan, Lacity, Speller, Estes), to the development of VR videogames (Hall, Fredrick), to the renovations of the Mullins Library, which will have two VR rooms and one dedicated AR (augmented reality) space (Brown).  

Across the seven presentations, four unifying themes emerged: accessibility, outreach, community-building events and empathy. A Q&A for all seven speakers and the guest speaker (Thrasher) followed the series of presentations, with questions regarding cultural perspectives and equitable usage of VR leading the conversation. 
 
Maughan and Francis are excited to lead a follow-up spring 2025 event that will feature hands-on demonstrations of the ongoing VR at UARK initiatives. If you are interested in participating, please contact them directly: Curtis Maughan, cmaughan@uark.edu, Trevor Francis, tafranc@uark.edu.