HReality-UAT Research Announcement

FabCom, an integrated strategic marketing and advertising agency in Scottsdale, AZ, is excited to announce a research partnership with University of Advancing Technology (UAT) to define the efficacy of HReality virtual experiential learning when compared to current online curriculum delivery standards.

HReality is a hybrid development of professional mixed reality environments created through the combination of new and converging technologies: augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), cinematography, Lidar, 3D animation, artificial intelligence (AI), and spatial digital computing, including the incorporation of haptic and spatial sound. HReality is purposed for immersive branded experiences, specifically learning environments such as classrooms, entire campuses, professional corporate training, and much more.

After decades of working on advancing technology education delivery, Dr. Dave Bolman, Provost of UAT, is "excited for the opportunity to work with FabCom again and define the major research question: Do students learn faster and retain information better when receiving new knowledge through HReality virtual experiential learning when compared to established curriculum delivery within Canvas-style LMS systems?"

Since the onset of early VR systems in the early ‘90s, immersive and responsive technologies have suggested a future where they are applied to enhance learning. As of the 2020s, the latticed infrastructure of technologies needed to support viable learning using VR have evolved sufficiently to make this idea a possibility. Text-based networked VR and advancements with lidar and human-computer interaction now enable users to experience wearable-less immersive VR. Combined with the growing fidelity of VR speed, file size, and playability of video, a new class of VR is being created from this convergence.

The very newness of VR as a tool means that little research has occurred that clarifies if, how, and to what application it can effectively support learning and human interaction. To prove the hypothesis that people interacting in virtual spaces will experience improved learning and retention, a specific focus of the work will be to introduce natural human behaviors and appearances into simulated environments and examine the impact on learning.

Known as professionalication, this is the refinement of the learnings of the application of gamification and uses a gamified world to deliver real-to-life professional interactions through technical and ethical body language, body movements, and tribal customs of a specific industry or business for those living in the digital age.

HReality inventor and FabCom CEO Brian Fabiano remarks, "This is one of the areas I’m most excited about with professionalication. Applying the years of what we’ve been working on for B2B to be purposed for academia will bring interaction and engagement back to online learning with the integration of kinetic and haptic feedback."

The purpose of these studies conducted by UAT and FabCom will be to set the early precedent of best practices and clarify the extent to which learning is enhanced when conducted within simulated environments.

"We’re both excited to bring this body of research together to update the current research and improve online education delivery." Remarks Dr. Bolman, "We’re introducing a new class of virtual learning that doesn’t require headgear."

Both UAT and FabCom have worked on the edge of advancing technology since the dawn of the computer age. After 35 years of working on gamification technologies, UAT is partnering to advance learning at the next frontier of VR and HReality with professionalication. UAT is consistently recognized for their advancing technology degrees: they teach one of the top game design programs in the world since its debut in 1995 and introduced some of the first human-computer interaction and virtual reality curriculums.

FabCom has deep experience in leveraging discontinuous innovation and converging technologies and helped usher in some of the first online education delivery interfaces in the Southwest. Partnering with UAT, FabCom helped launch the first game development curriculum, which birthed curriculums for VR, AR, and human-computer interaction degrees. Some of the programs the agency helped create six years ago are now filling up our shop, which enabled the agency to evolve to the tech prowess leveraged in the creation of HReality.

If you’re interested in conducting research with HReality or becoming a beta partner, call FabCom at 480.478.8500 or visit hreality.com/beta-partners.

Learn more about how HReality Education is changing online education.