A practical guide to developing virtual and augmented reality exercises for teaching structural biology

• Published in: Biochemistry and molecular biology education Vol. 47; no. 1; pp. 16 - 24
• Main Authors: Garcia‐Bonete, Maria‐Jose, Jensen, Maja, Katona, Gergely
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.01.2019; Wiley-Blackwell; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Augmented reality; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Biokemi och molekylärbiologi; Biology; Capital expenditures; chemistry; Computer Simulation; Computer Software; education; Educational Sciences; Educational Technology; Exploration; higher education; Human Computer Interaction; Humans; Learning; Lärande; Macromolecules; Molecular Biology; Människa-datorinteraktion (interaktionsdesign); Protein Conformation; Proteins; Science Instruction; Simulated Environment; Software; Structural Biology; Strukturbiologi; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Technology Uses in Education; Utbildningsvetenskap; Virtual Reality; augmented reality; higher education; structural biology; Virtual reality
• ISSN: 1470-8175; 1539-3429; 1539-3429
• DOI: 10.1002/bmb.21188

Although virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) techniques have been used extensively in specialized laboratories, only recently did they become affordable, reaching wider consumer markets. With increased availability, it is timely to examine the roles that VR and AR may play in teaching structural biology and in experiencing complex data sets such as macromolecular structures. This guide is suitable for those teachers of structural biology who do not have a deep knowledge of information technologies. This study focuses on three questions: 1) How can teachers of structural biology produce and disseminate VR/AR‐ready educational material with established and user‐friendly software tools?; 2) What are the positive and negative experiences reported by test participants when performing identical learning tasks in the VR and AR environments?; and 3) How do the test participants perceive prerecorded narration during VR/AR exploration? © 2018 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 47(1):16–24, 2018.