Glossary
There are currently 95 names in this directory
180° / 360°
Describes photographic or videographic content that is visible around one (180°) or two (360°) axes of movement, e.g. videos in which the user can turn his head left/right and up/down to view the scene.
3D
3D means three-dimensional, or having three dimensions, for example a box which has width, length and height. In computer graphics this most often relates to geometry used for rendering images on displays.
Affective Learning Objectives
Affective learning objectives are learning goals in the area of feelings, attitudes and values. They are trained via reflection, networking and practical application (affective = emotive).
Agency
The capacity of an entity to act in, and influence, an environment, here a virtual or artificially augmented environment.
Emirbayer, Mustafa, and Ann Mische. 'What is agency?.' American journal of sociology 103.4 (1998): 962-1023.
Assistance Systems
Digital assistance aims at supporting users in all possible situations via intelligent and adaptive technologies.
Augmented Reality
In Augmented Reality the visible natural world is overlaid with a layer of digital content, which happens in real-time, is correctly aligned with the real world and is interactive.
Azuma, Ronald, et al. 'Recent advances in augmented reality.' IEEE computer graphics and applications 21.6 (2001): 34-47.
Authorial Intent
The extent to which a human author pre-ordains possible narratives to experience or creates explorable virtual worlds that adapt to users.
Authoring Tools
Tools that help authors of (educational) content create material, e.g. for the use in AR/VR. In comparison to IDE's authoring tools work on an abstract, more user friendly layer which compensate the IT and 3D expertise normally needed to create AR/VR content.
Avatar
The virtual representation of an user in a virtual environment, most relevant for aspects of immersion and presence as well as social AR/VR settings.
Behaviourism
Learning theory that focuses on the idea that all behaviours are learned through interactions with the environment.
Building Information Modelling
A process that involves the generation and management of digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of places.
CAD-Data
Construction data necessary within the scope of product development, which is created on the computer using special software, see Computer-aided Design (CAD).
Central Processing Unit
The electronic circuitry that executes the instructions comprising a computer program, performing basic arithmetic, logic, controlling and input/output operations in contrast to tasks performed by more specialized processors like GPUs.
Chaperone / Guardian
Systems that warn a user when they approach a physical barrier, to which they are blind because of the HMD they are wearing. This ideally prevents collisions and minimized accidents.
Classroom-based teaching / learning
Classroom-based teaching / learning is held at a set time and place, and is conducted by an instructor in an organized manner utilizing a lesson plan.
Cognitivism
Learning theory that views people as information processors (instead of collections of learned behaviours), in which learning is defined as the acquisition of knowledge.
Collaborative Learning
A situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together.
Communication Skills
The knowledge of effective and appropriate communication patterns and the ability to use and adapt that knowledge in various contexts.
Computer-aided Design
Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or workstations) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design.
Constructivism
Learning theory that describes learning as a process, in which people actively construct or make their own knowledge.
Controller
Input devices used for manipulating and/or interacting with virtual objects and environments.
Degrees of Freedom
Refers to the number of basic ways an object or user can move in a 3D space. 3 DoF refers to the rotational movement around the x, y and z axes, such as looking left/right, rotating head up/down or turning left/right commonly termed pitch, yaw and roll. 6 DoF adds translational movements along the x, y and z axes, such as moving forward/backward, left/right and up/down.
Digital Twin
A virtual representation of an object or system that ideally spans its complete lifecycle, is updated from real-time data and uses simulation, machine learning and reasoning to help decision-making.
Duck Test
A colloquial name for a method of testing if a user has reached a state of presence or immersion by monitoring their reaction when threatened by virtual objects.
Emotional Presence activation
Evoking an emotional response from the user, e.g. empathy, joy or fun, within a virtual environment.
Empathy Learning
Learning to cultivate empathy / the ability to share someone else's feelings and experiencies.
Employability Skills
The skills which enable people to gain, keep and progress in employment, including skills in the clusters of work readiness and work habits, interpersonal skills and learning, thinking and adaptability skills.
Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) - Germany
Field-of-View
The view that is visible to the user while rotating their head from a fixed body position. While the average human FoV is approximately 200°, most VR HMDs currently offer around 85°-115°.
Flow
Also known as being in the 'zone'. A mental state in which the user is so involved in the process of an activity that nothing else seems to matter.
Foveated Rendering
A technique which uses an eye tracker integrated with a HMD to reduce the rendering workload by greatly reducing the image quality in the peripheral vision.
Frames per Second
The framerate or frequency at which consecutive images can be displayed, depending on the computing hardware used, greatly impacting the visual quality in VR.
Game Engine
Software application that provides comprehensive facilities to programmers for software development, e.g. Unity Engine, Unreal Engine or Godot.
Game-based Learning
Game based learning (GBL) is a type of game play that has defined learning outcomes. Learners work toward a goal, choose actions and experience the consequences of those actions along the way. Through experimentation, they actively learn and practice the right way to do things.
What is GBL (Game-Based Learning)? - EdTechReview
Gamification
The combination of immersive learning media and game-based learning offers particular potential because the emotional involvement and motivation of learners receive an additional boost. This is especially true of younger target groups.
Gartner Hype Cycle
The Hype Cycle was devised by the market research company Gartner. It provides a graphical depiction of a common pattern that arises with new technologies or other innovations and enables the maturity and potential of a technology to be identified. The five key phases of the Hype Cycle are Innovation Trigger, Peak of Inflated Expectations, Trough of Disillusionment, Slope of Enlightenment and Plateau of Productivity.
Blosch, M., and J. Fenn. 'Understanding Gartner’s Hype Cycles.' (2018).
Gaze
When content, e.g. the way actors or objects in a scene behave or are interacted with, is directly impacted by the users gaze.
Gesture
A Form of non-verbal communication through the body - typically the hands or head - that can be mirrored in virtual reality.
Graphics Processing Unit
Processor used for rendering images on displays, where most standalone HMDs use onboard chips with low to midrange and PC's may use dedicated GPUs with high rendering capabilities.
Haptic Feedback
Haptic technology simulates the sense of touch through the sensation of pressure (usually on the hands via a glove).
Head Tracking
The ability for a HMD to monitor the position and orientation of an user and mirror it in virtual reality.
Head-Mounted-Display
A set of goggles or a helmet with tiny high-resolution monitors in front of each eye to generate images that the viewer perceives as three-dimensional.
Immersion
A psychological sense of presence in a virtual environment.
Riva, Giuseppe, Fabrizio Davide, and Wijnand A. IJsselsteijn. 'Being there: The experience of presence in mediated environments.' Being there: Concepts, effects and measurement of user presence in synthetic environments 5 (2003).
Immersive Media
Media which allows users to reach a state of immersion in computer-generated environments. The world thus technically constructed is then perceived as being real to a greater or lesser extent.
Industry 4.0
We are now in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, aka Industry 4.0, which revolutionizes the automation, monitoring, and analysis of supply chains through smart technology
Inside-Out-Tracking
Method of positional tracking used in AR/VR using sensors integrated in the HMD, alleviating the need for external tracking systems.
Interaction Skills
The general ability to interact with the external world to accomplish a task. A typical interactive task requires the person to look for relevant information and choose the right actions.
Interactive Narrative
A form of digital interactive experience in which users create or influence a virtual environment, balancing authored and ordained narrative and freewill interaction.
Riedl, Mark Owen, and Vadim Bulitko. 'Interactive narrative: An intelligent systems approach.' Ai Magazine 34.1 (2013): 67-67.
Labilization / Sensitization
Teaching specific learning content and skills through emotional experiences.
Latency
The time delay or lag between activating a process (e.g. an users input) and its accomplishment (eg- the resulting visual effect).
Learning Scenario
An instructional design model for a given subject and a given kind of situation that defines what learners and other actors (e.g. the teaching staff) should/can do with a given set of resources and tools.
Pedagogical scenario - EduTech Wiki (unige.ch)
Locomotion
The means by which a user is able to navigate virtual spaces, e.g. via teleportation, transportation or perambulation (room-tracking).
Methodological competence
The ability of teachers to apply theoretical and experiential knowledge in their practical work with the aim of effective teaching.
Mixed Reality
A spectrum ranging from real to virtual environments, where augmented and virtual reality can be located on.
Motion Sickness
A very small proportion of users develop symptoms such as dizziness or feeling sick. These are comparable to sea sickness. This problem has been considerably alleviated in recent years thanks to the higher resolution of the monitors used and the shorter reaction times of the software.
Motor Skills
Relationship between cognitive functions and physical movement, as demonstrated by fine or gross motor skills and the learning of coordinated activities.
Photogrammetry
Photogrammetry is a measuring technology for obtaining information about physical objects and the environment through the process of recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images and patterns of electromagnetic radiation.
Positional Audio
Spatial or binaural sound allows you to experience sound in 3d, with each sound having its own position and orientation.
Positional Tracking
The ability to track the precise position of a HMD, Controllers or other trackable objects, using Inside Out Tracking or external tracking methods.
Presence
A feeling of being in and of the virtual world, and the ignoring of phyiscal world distractions.
Procedural Learning
Process of acquiring skill at a task, particularly a task that eventually can be performed automatically (i.e. without attention), as opposed to acquiring a declarative memory or factual knowledge about it.
Professional Competencies
Expert skill or knowledge in a particular field. The proven or demonstrated individual capacity to use know-how, skills, qualifications or knowledge in order to meet the usual, and changing, occupational situations and requirements.
Ray casting
The process of defining a starting point and a direction, from which an imaginary line – the ray – is drawn. If this line intersects with an object with a collider (e.g. a bounding box that defines the outer perimeter of the object), the process returns information about this object (e.g. its position in world space) and the length of the line when it first collided. In VR this can for example be used to realize gaze interactions, finding out if a user points at an object and many things more.
Refresh Rate
The frequency at which the image on a display is refreshed, usually expressed in hertz. In contrast to the framerate directly depending on the display hardware, not on the computing capabilities.
Resolution
The number of pixels that can be displayed on a display or HMD, usually shown as 'width x height', e.g. '1832 x 1920 per eye' for the Oculus Quest 2.
Room-scale
A design paradigm that allows users to move freely within a room-sized AR/VR environment while partaking in a AR/VR experience.
Screen-Door-Effect
Visual artifact caused by the pixel structure of displays used for AR/VR, where the space between individual pixels is unlit and therefor may be visible as a black grid, especially for low resolutions.
Serious Game
A serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment.
Situated Learning
Theory that explains peoples individual acquisition of professional skills through the relationship between learning and the social situation in which it occurs.
Social Competence
Social, emotional, cognitive and behavioral skills needed for successful social adaptation.
Standalone VR
A monolithic Head-Mounted-Display with built-in computing capabilities, Inside-Out-Tracking and batteries allowing for untethered AR/VR experiences.
Standing / Sitting VR
Didactics paradigms for standing or sitting AR/VR experiences which do not need the user to move in a virtual environment, e.g. when simulating vehicle cockpits.
STEM
A broad term used to group together the academic disciplines 'Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics' (STEM), which is typically used to address an education policy or curriculum choices in schools.
Stereoscopic
Process by which two images of the same object or scene are taken at slightly different angles, creating an impression of depth and solidity when viewed on a HMD.
Tracking
Positional and/or rotational tracking of users in virtual or augmented environments, e.g. with external trackers or inside-out tracking.
Unity Engine
Game engine developed by Unity Technologies used for games and other applications, with broad support for AR/VR applications and favourable licensing conditions, where it is available free of charge for organizations with less then USD 100.000 gross annual revenue.
Unreal Engine
Game engine developed by Epic Games Inc. used for games and other applications, with broad support for AR/VR applications and favourable licensing conditions, where it is available free of charge for game or application with less then USD 1.000.000 lifetime gross revenue.
User Experience
The experience a user has in AR/VR, which can differ greatly from experiences possible in more conventional desktop or mobile applications.
User Interface
Where conventional applications benefit from longstanding best practices regarding the Didactics of user interfaces, these can not always be translated to the spatial nature of AR/VR, which is why more natural user interfaces (like grabbing an virtual object with a gesture instead of the press of a button) may be more suited to meaningful user experiences in AR/VR.
