Effect of Immersive VR on Student-Tutor Interaction in Design Crits

Immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) systems form a representational medium for student-tutor collaboration in studio crits through a shared presence in a life scale display of the design, making them relevant for design crits where students and tutors interact in developing a solution to a design problem. iVRs are known to support design activity. However, research focusing on the impact of iVRs on student-tutor interaction is scarce, creating a gap in integrating these systems as educational settings. In response, this research analyzes a natural case study of student-tutor interaction in two architecture studio crits that used the iVR and non-immersive media. We employed the Function-Behaviour-Structure ontology to track the design issues generated for each medium. Further analysis identified the distribution of cognitive effort measured by problem-solution indexes. Preliminary results show large differences when using the two media: The iVR was found to support a higher frequency of solution-focused issues generated by the student and to maintain a lower Problem-Solution Index for the student than for the tutor, serving as an empirical foundation for further research on the effects of deploying this technology in the design studio.