Wen, Jing (2022) Assessing the impact of immersive storytelling in attracting female students to construction education using social cognitive career theory. PhD thesis, University of Florida, USA.
Abstract
Though research efforts have been conducted to understand the strategies to increase female participation in STEM and relevant areas, including the construction field, still the desired outcomes have not been forthcoming. This study proposes to explore the innovative use of 360-degree immersive environments powered by virtual characters to tell stories of the construction field from females' perspectives (VR-Women). Immersive storytelling integrates storytelling with a 360-degree immersive environment (e.g., 360-degree panoramas and videos), where the audiences can actively observe unbroken views of a whole region surrounding audiences by the movement of the head or the device. These low-cost, simple-to-capture representations are true-to-reality and allow tech-savvy young audiences to see first-hand how the learning environment and workplace might look with a strong sense of presence. VR-Women is assessed using social cognitive career theory, where four students' cognitive factors are measured before and after experiencing VR-Women.This study introduces the creation and development process of the immersive story in detail, examines how immersive storytelling affects students' cognitive factors towards the construction fields, and how students' personal and contextual influences play a role in VR-Women's outcome. The results can enhance our understanding of immersive storytelling's potential influence in motivating students and ultimately attracting them to the STEM fields in a financially efficient manner.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Gheisari, Masoud |
| Index terms: | women, construction education, presence, movement, career, panorama, strategy |
| Subjects: | visualization, management, environmental science, professional education, sociology, health behaviours and lifestyles, professional development |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Sustainability, Business Strategy, Education, Digital Applications, Information Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here