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View web retention policyThis proposal is for a project that will establish and evaluate an interactive virtual design studio as part of a distance learning system. The resulting interactive virtual design studio will allow art and design students to incorporate their creations in an interactive virtual environment in a way that allows correct perception of scale and interaction with the environment. The student will be able to interact with the virtual design studio as though they were in the real design studio. Beyond this the student will be able to enter, view and manipulate their virtual designs that in a real design studio would prove difficult or costly yet is also a requisite part of their learning. An extremely beneficial aspect of the virtual design studio is the way the student will be able to evaluate their designs in the context of the end user or point of sale. Visibility of the whole design to implementation process is of prime importance.
Traditionally, the cost of making prototypes is very expensive, which makes it difficult to evaluate a number of contexts at the same time. The ability to do this will profoundly enhance the educational methods and learning experience of such experimentation. The primary objectives of the project will be to demonstrate that such a virtual design environment represents an effective and versatile tool in support of traditional teaching aims and methods and that, additionally, its function could be made available over a high performance virtual band network such as ISDN to both distant students and professional tutors alike.
The Vice-Chancellor supports this proposal in Art and design. He is particularly keen to encourage collaboration between the University and Loughborough College of Art and Design.