Towards Advanced Evaluation of Collaborative XR Spaces

Extended Reality (XR) technologies such as head-mounted displays are deemed beneficial for the collaboration of co-located as well as distributed people. As such, XR technologies appear particularly promising for supporting distant and hybrid teaching which became highly relevant during the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the potential awarded to such technologies, practical applications are still very rare. In order to investigate the impediments to the practical adoption of XR technologies, the respective systems should be evaluated in real-world settings. Existing evaluation tools are, however, not suited for this purpose. In this paper, we explain why today's evaluation tools such as questionnaires, observation, and performance measurements are not sufficient for evaluating long-time, exploratory, and collaborative tasks that are typical in educational settings. To address this gap, we follow a top-down approach: Based on an existing model of user acceptance, we specify the variables that are to be optimized by HCI research and outline the potential of wearable-based measuring instruments to quantitatively assess these parameters. Eventually, we point out related research gaps that should be addressed by future research.

Ageism Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Both benevolent and hostile ageism can have deleterious effects on older adults. Given the explicit ageist messages in the media, we anticipated increases in both benevolent and hostile ageism in the context of COVID-19. Moreover, we predicted that age and initial COVID-related concerns would influence both initial levels and change over time in ageism, with younger adults and those who were more concerned about COVID-19 exhibiting higher levels of both types of ageism. Adults (N = 325, M-age = 39.7) were surveyed at 5 time points across the first 4 months of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. A series of growth curve analyses was conducted to examine individual differences in ageism and change over time for each type of ageism. We were able to detect individual differences in both benevolent and hostile ageism. Benevolent ageism and hostile ageism decreased over time. Although age and COVID-19 concerns were associated with initial levels of ageism, neither influenced the rate of change. Our results demonstrate that benevolent ageism and hostile ageism decreased over the first 4 months of the U.S. pandemic. As a dynamic situation, changes may require a longer period of time in order to be detected.

Towards Advanced Evaluation of Collaborative XR Spaces

Extended Reality (XR) technologies such as head-mounted displays are deemed beneficial for the collaboration of co-located as well as distributed people. As such, XR technologies appear particularly promising for supporting distant and hybrid teaching which became highly relevant during the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the potential awarded to such technologies, practical applications are still very rare. In order to investigate the impediments to the practical adoption of XR technologies, the respective systems should be evaluated in real-world settings. Existing evaluation tools are, however, not suited for this purpose. In this paper, we explain why today’s evaluation tools such as questionnaires, observation, and performance measurements are not sufficient for evaluating long-time, exploratory, and collaborative tasks that are typical in educational settings. To address this gap, we follow a top-down approach: Based on an existing model of user acceptance, we specify the variables that are to be optimized by HCI research and outline the potential of wearable-based measuring instruments to quantitatively assess these parameters. Eventually, we point out related research gaps that should be addressed by future research. © 2022, IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.