Turning a challenge into an opportunity at the School of Art

How do you teach an in-person studio course during a pandemic? Even more crucial, how do students access high-powered computer workstations, typically available at the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM), when those facilities are closed? One School of Art faculty member, Justin Berry, was facing this very challenge in the summer of 2020. With the support of ITS Help Desk staff, a hardware sponsorship from HP, and a bit of hard work and luck, everything came together in time for the fall semester.

In his role as a Yale Faculty member, Justin teaches a 3D Modeling for Creative Practice class, which is devoted to learning the tools and techniques of 3D modeling. However, his experience as Principal Investigator for the Yale Blended Reality research project guided Justin toward a solution for teaching while remote. He partnered with project sponsor HP to secure enough HP Zbook loaner laptops for each class student. Then, he coordinated with a Distributed Support Provider, Ed Foley, to facilitate the laptops’ shipping and receiving. David Woyciesjes, at the ITS Help Desk, configured the laptops to align with Yale Minimum Security Standards (MSS) and provided them with access the necessary access for their coursework. Finally, the Yale CCAM equipment loan desk facilitated laptop distribution.

Using their loaner laptops and virtual reality headsets, students met and collaborated on the AltspaceVR (a Microsoft company) platform. Students exhibited their weekly assignments in a fun and collaborative environment through the platform—a welcome alternative to Zoom class meetings. Using 3D graphical software such as Autodesk Maya and the Unity Game Engine—both available through the HP Zbook laptops, student projects ranged from a virtual museum of photography to a walk-through immersive sound wave learning tool. For one assignment, Justin drew on contacts at the School of Medicine to present students with a 3D scan of a human brain. Students used the model as the starting point to create unique, artistic ways to allow a user to explore the brain.

The class was a hit, and Yale plans to repeat it for this spring semester using the same model with a new group of students. Justin has received inquiries from other School of Art staff exploring Virtual Reality (VR) as an element of their courses. It will be interesting to watch how this innovative teaching environment continues to grow and gain adoption here at Yale.