By Emilie Bauer
Creative Writing, Sophomore

Edward Carpenter has become very familiar with Room B254 in Beering Hall over the past few months. He measured everything in the room with a tape measure, from the room dimensions to the height of the desks.

Rendering of typical COM114 classroom

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He also took photographs of the floor tiles and the bricks on the walls. He took careful note of the placement of the bulletin board and how it was decorated with colorful posters and fliers.

Carpenter did all this painstaking work in order to make an exact replica of the room on a computer program. The results of his work will be used to simulate a speaking environment for students who have an intense fear of public speaking so that they can overcome it.

Carpenter, a junior in the School of Technology, has been working with Dr. Melanie Morgan, an assistant professor of Communication and the course director for COM114, the beginning public speaking course, in a study of whether virtual reality situations can serve as a therapy for people with communication apprehension, or a larger-than-average fear of public speaking.

In order for the study to be effective, the virtual room, which will be located in Purdue's new Envision Center, must look as much like a real room as possible.

"Scale is really important," said Carpenter. "If you see a desk as big as you are, it's not going to feel like a real classroom."

The Envision Center uses the latest in virtual reality and artificial intelligence to create simulated, life-size 3-D, interactive scenarios for teaching and research purposes. Research is conducted in an area known as "The Cave," which surrounds the student on three sides with giant computer screens. Special glasses provide a 3-D effect that puts the student within the scene itself.

Various views of classroom with "students"

Of course, the classroom model does not help unless there is an audience to sit in it.

Carpenter and others have worked to create avatars, or virtual people, to sit in the virtual desks. Morgan said that these virtual students will be made to look like real students, complete with gestures and wandering looks.

The avatars will not directly respond to the speaker; instead, their movements will be programmed ahead of time. However, they can be programmed to respond with a certain mood, ranging from enthusiastic to aggressive.

The avatars for this first study will be neutral, since the study involves students already afraid to speak in public. "In this first study, we're not trying anything hostile," said Morgan.

Morgan said that at least one study has been conducted where people gave speeches to virtual audiences. She said that technology has improved since then and the avatars in this study will look more realistic. She noted, though, that even unrealistic avatars have caused speakers to feel nervous, so she will be interested to see the results from her study.

"It's amazing to me the capabilities we have to even entertain a study like this," Morgan said.

Morgan said that virtual reality has been used to help people get over such fears as arachnophobia, and she hopes that the same will be true of communication apprehension.

Laura Vercler, a graduate student who teaches communication apprehension sections of COM114, said she is also interested to see students' reactions to the study. She said she does her best to help students get over their fears but hopes that outside help like the virtual rooms will supplement her teaching.

"I can't reach everyone," she said. "I hope these technologies can help them in their jobs and help them become stronger speakers."

In the fall, Morgan will join professor Jane Natt in a new project designed to improve the interviewing skills of beginning mass media students. A disaster scene is being recreated by programmers and graphic artists that will test students' questioning and decision-making skills.

"It will provide our students with an unparalleled learning situation," Natt said. "You can't really ask 80 students to descend upon an apartment fire and start peppering those involved with questions."