Back to search results

PhD Studentship: VR for educators improving health literacy in young people

University of Southampton

Qualification Type: PhD
Location: Southampton
Funding for: UK Students, EU Students, International Students
Funding amount: For UK students, Tuition Fees and a stipend of £17,668 p.a. for 4 years.
Hours: Full Time
Placed On: 2nd March 2023
Closes: 15th September 2023
 

Supervisory Team:    Dr Nicholas Fair, Professor Keith Godfrey, Professor Michael Boniface, Professor Sunil Manghani, Dr Kath Woods-Townsend

Project description

We are delighted to invite applications for a 4-year interdisciplinary PhD studentship in VR content production for inclusive virtual education. Working with stakeholders at all stages, you will research, design, develop and test an open VR content production solution for educators (and students) that will aim to overcome the barriers to the widespread adoption of VR in schools.

We are seeking an enthusiastic and talented individual to research and develop an open, accessible, usable and inclusive VR content production solution for educators using science to raise young people’s awareness and interest in health issues and make positive changes to health-related attitudes. For over a decade VR use in education has been shown to be an exciting educational resource benefitting student engagement, motivation and confidence, and resulting in higher achievement and better results - particularly for young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

Despite this, there are challenges to the adoption of educational VR in schools, including a lack of digital skills, institutional support, time, functionality and usability. Hence although VR offers transformational benefits to learners, VR in education has not been made sufficiently accessible to students and teachers and bespoke VR content production remains in the hands of expensive, 3rd Party developers. This PhD research aims to change this by exploring how VR content production can be inclusive and accessible to all educators. 

The successful candidate will study the VR domain in depth and identify the social and technical barriers to adoption by teachers and students. They will then apply that knowledge to the design and development of barrier-lowering, open, accessible and inclusive tools for VR content production, before testing and evaluating those tools with stakeholders. The PhD will follow a human-centred, iterative, co-design methodology within a Design-Test-Evaluate thesis structure. To deliver the research the PhD student will build direct relationships with schools and end-users (teachers, students, school administrators) supported through LifeLab, an established scientific engagement and literacy programme. Mixed methods analysis will be used to inform the design, development, testing and optimisation of new VR tools.

Entry Requirements

You are a UK graduate with a good first degree (minimum upper second class or equivalent) in computer science, web science, digital education, software development, computer animation & gaming,  digital health or other appropriate subject, and a good Master’s degree (minimum upper second class or equivalent) in a similarly appropriate subject and/or a good first degree (as above) and some level of industry experience in gaming, VR, XR, software development or other related sectors.

Closing date: 15 September 2023 for standard admissions, but later applications may be considered depending on the funds remaining in place.

Funding: For UK students, Tuition Fees and a stipend of £17,668 p.a. for 4 years.

Applications should include:

Planned Research Outline

Curriculum Vitae

Two reference letters

Degree Transcripts/Certificates to date

For further information please contact: feps-pgr-apply@soton.ac.uk

We value your feedback on the quality of our adverts. If you have a comment to make about the overall quality of this advert, or its categorisation then please send us your feedback
Advert information

Type / Role:

Subject Area(s):

Location(s):

PhD tools
 

PhD Alert Created

Job Alert Created

Your PhD alert has been successfully created for this search.

Your job alert has been successfully created for this search.

Ok Ok

PhD Alert Created

Job Alert Created

Your PhD alert has been successfully created for this search.

Your job alert has been successfully created for this search.

Manage your job alerts Manage your job alerts

Account Verification Missing

In order to create multiple job alerts, you must first verify your email address to complete your account creation

Request verification email Request verification email

jobs.ac.uk Account Required

In order to create multiple alerts, you must create a jobs.ac.uk jobseeker account

Create Account Create Account

Alert Creation Failed

Unfortunately, your account is currently blocked. Please login to unblock your account.

Email Address Blocked

We received a delivery failure message when attempting to send you an email and therefore your email address has been blocked. You will not receive job alerts until your email address is unblocked. To do so, please choose from one of the two options below.

Max Alerts Reached

A maximum of 5 Job Alerts can be created against your account. Please remove an existing alert in order to create this new Job Alert

Manage your job alerts Manage your job alerts

Creation Failed

Unfortunately, your alert was not created at this time. Please try again.

Ok Ok

Create PhD Alert

Create Job Alert

When you create this PhD alert we will email you a selection of PhDs matching your criteria.When you create this job alert we will email you a selection of jobs matching your criteria. Our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy apply to this service. Any personal data you provide in setting up this alert is processed in accordance with our Privacy Notice

Create PhD Alert

Create Job Alert

When you create this PhD alert we will email you a selection of PhDs matching your criteria.When you create this job alert we will email you a selection of jobs matching your criteria. Our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy apply to this service. Any personal data you provide in setting up this alert is processed in accordance with our Privacy Notice

 
 
 
More PhDs from University of Southampton

Show all PhDs for this organisation …

More PhDs like this
Join in and follow us

Browser Upgrade Recommended

jobs.ac.uk has been optimised for the latest browsers.

For the best user experience, we recommend viewing jobs.ac.uk on one of the following:

Google Chrome Firefox Microsoft Edge