This project engages students in producing 360 video as virtual resources to complement curriculum in sport management education and internationalization of Kinesiology Sport and Recreation student programs. Internationalization broadens student employability and encourages social responsibility and inclusion.

Students will be trained in 360 video production and use the cameras purchased in this project in a variety of settings from sport participation, events, international exchange and work placement. They will also learn to edit and finalize a suite of themed videos and upload them to existing VR hardware for viewing. VR experience will be integrated across a variety of classes including sport management, mindfulness, event management and research methods in sport and recreation.

Students in RSS 3001 Assessment and Evaluation (Fall) will be involved in designing evaluations for the use of VR in the classroom. Content developed from May 2023 to Dec 2023 will be integrated into 3 classes in Winter of 2024, Intro to Management in Sport and Recreation, Advanced Management in Sport and Recreation and Mindfulness.

The project evaluates the impact of VR on student engagement and learning using a variety of implicit and explicit measurement tools. Best practices in VR resources can be developed and used to inform future projects and learning experiences.

For more information about this project, contact the Principal Investigator (PI) Dr Terri Byers.

Led by Alana Thompson, TaTrobe University, Australia & partner with Simon Darcy, University of Technology, Sydney.

Opportunities to participate in sport provide people with access to a range of social, health and economic benefits. However, people with disabilities face a range of barriers to participation. There has been limited focus on the athlete perspective in addressing these issues, and in particular, female athletes with disabilities are significantly under-represented in the extant research. This project addresses this issue/gap by taking a co-design approach, working with female athletes with disabilities to:

• identify issues in the system of sport which impact on participation for people with disabilities and progression through talent pathways; and
• prioritise solutions which could help to improve social inclusion outcomes in sport. We will be working with AusCycling, the national governing body for all disciplines of cycling in Australia, to identify 8 to 12 female athletes with physical disabilities.

We will invite these athletes to collaborate with our research team in a co-design methodology to identify issues, generate and prioritise solutions.

Participants (referred to as athlete co-researchers) will be invited to participate in a maximum of three focus groups and one workshop sessions over a six-month period, including:

• Focus group session 1 | Establishment – this focus group will focus on building a collaborative approach with athlete co-researchers to inform the focus and scope of the project and desired conduct of the research group;
• Focus group session 2 | Co-creation – this focus group will investigate athlete’s stories of their sport career histories and their insights of the system of sport to identify key facilitators and inhibitors of participation for people with disabilities
• Focus groups session 3 | Co-design – we will work with athletes to consider Session 2 findings and then subsequently generate possible solutions to improve socially inclusive opportunities for people with disabilities, we will also focus on prioritising the various ideas generated
• Embedding knowledge workshop – we will feed back findings from focus groups to AusCyling and identify implications for their sport policies, processes and practices to reflect social inclusion outcomes.

Preliminary research presented at SMAANZ 2022.