{"id":7014,"date":"2018-06-25T09:16:46","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T13:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/?p=7014"},"modified":"2018-06-25T12:40:45","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T16:40:45","slug":"ou-journalism-majors-report-in-vr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/ou-journalism-majors-report-in-vr\/","title":{"rendered":"OU Journalism Majors Report in VR"},"content":{"rendered":"

University professors are finding uses for virtual reality (VR) in fields from medicine<\/a> to aviation<\/a>. A new program at the University of Oklahoma\u2019s (OU) Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication isn\u2019t teaching with VR. Instead, it teaches students how to produce it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Led by Professors Kathleen Johnson (an Emmy award-winning former network news producer) and Mike Boettcher (an Emmy award-winning veteran war correspondent), the class teaches learners to produce their own long-form investigative documentary in 360\u00ba.<\/span><\/p>\n

VR in Journalism at OU<\/h1>\n

\u201cThey have one semester to do one story,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt has to be in-depth, researched, with an investigative-type look and we want them to take chances. We want them to push the envelope with production, journalism, data gathering, and now, technically with VR so that they are prepared for the new media that we have now.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

There are five majors OU students may pursue at Gaylord College: advertising, journalism, media production, public relations, and professional writing. And according to Johnson, learners from each concentration have now taken the VR course since it began its first run last fall. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey all know now that there is a need to have a video experience as well as an in depth experience,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cTo my surprise, there\u2019s a huge desire to learn about new technology, such as VR. The class is capped at 14. In the past, we\u2019ve usually had around 8 students, which, for this class is actually a big number. It\u2019s an in-depth project, and very hands on. Since we\u2019ve been doing VR last fall, it\u2019s been full with a waiting list.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n