VIRTUAL REALITY AS A DESIGN EDUCATION 445 VIRTUAL REALITY AS A DESIGN EDUCATION: A Malaysian experience AHMAD RAFI, MASTURA YUNAN, MAZLAN MAHADZIR AND ABDUL HALIM Faculty of Creative Multimedia, Multimedia University Cyberyaya, Selangor 63100, Malaysia {ahmadrafi.eshaq, mastura.yunan, mazlan.mahadzir, abdulhalim.ahmad}@mmu.edu.my Abstract. This paper presents our attempts on virtual reality curriculum development for the past four years as one of the multimedia-based degrees. It will give an overview, goals and outcomes of the virtual reality (VR) curriculum with varieties of virtual reality systems, interactions and design theories used at different level of studies. It also highlights issues related to designing virtual spaces and the approach used to suggest a good storytelling. This paper will also explore, report and demonstrate the use of non-immersive virtual reality system based on a study in a problem-based learning environment of a virtual reality majoring. Following early encouraging first round results this paper concludes that experiential design could be one of the effective approaches for a problem-based learning and richer content creation of virtual environment (VE) design. It also suggests that the presence of motions, different field of views, interactivities and stereoscopic visions are attributes of three-dimensional (3D) visualization that contribute to better understanding and designing virtual environments. Keywords. Virtual reality; design education; problem-based learning; virtual environment. 1. Introduction While there have been a few attempts to approach virtual environment (VE) design such as learning from architecture (Bridges & Charitos, 1997; Garba, 2004; Bourdakis & Charitos, 2002) and film-related studies (Bridges & Charitos, 1997), VEs are significantly different by nature as compare to the physical environments (PEs). According to Bridges & Charitos (1997), these differences may be seen as problems due to the limitations of current virtual reality technology and intrinsic characteristics of virtual environments that can help to understand the individual nature of virtual environment as a medium. Similar to many design-based applications (Campbell & Wells, 2007), virtual reality design undergone the following phases: schematic design, design development, presentation and evaluation, detail development, prototyping, testing and evaluation, and final content output. In schematic design phase (Campbell & Wells, 2007), the overall characteristics of the virtual world are established. Significant issues are identified together with initial ideas or design decisions. In design development, the specific characters and intent of the entire project are described before progress in the presentation and evaluation stage. Proposals are presented, evaluated and commented by the target users (or clients), review board and relevant expertise, and design decisions are finalized. Following the approval of design, details are developed, prototype are tested and evaluated, revised and finally will be the content output. Considering virtual reality as one of the most powerful tools for designers, the potentials (or problems) can only be recognised after the extensive use of the technology (Campbell & Wells, 2007), specific to all design phases. According to them, these iterative cycles not limited to