Celebrate Learning Week 2021: Fossa Finder: Using Emerging Media in the Classroom

Fossa Finder Project Lead Julia Chu and EML Software Developer Dante Cerron join Fossa Finder Primary Investigator Dr. Pawel Kindler to discuss bringing applications working with models in a virtual reality environment to the classroom.

Join the Zoom meeting between 3:00PM-4:00PM PDT May 20, 2021

Dissections have been among the best tools in anatomy education. However, they are expensive and have limited use when trying to reach deep, small, detailed structures. One such area is the Pterygopalatine Fossa, an important super-junction of nerves and blood vessels in the skull. Where dissections fail, the burden is placed upon students to visualize these dynamic, three-dimensional objects from static, two-dimensional photos. As such, there is a clear need for advancements in this field of education.

The Fossa Finder project has undergone multiple iterations as we figured out what works and what does not for an 3D educational application about the Pterygopalatine fossa. We started with a control scheme that allowed the user to freely manipulate a 3D model of the space, but found that the freedom easily confused the user, resulting in a sub-optimal viewing experience. We found that a “guided tour” approach to movement in the space allowed for more stable viewing, even in a virtual reality environment, and allowed for more precise labeling of the fossa’s features. In light of the pandemic, we have produced a series of 360 videos that capture this application’s environment. Most recently, we have been working to bring the application to the classroom by improving the viewing experience in diverse modalities and providing an instruction set for faculty members to be able to set it up from home.

Check out more details about the project here.

Optional: register for the session HERE.