Running an XR lab in the context of COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learned from a Norwegian university

Universities and companies were not prepared to the changes introduced to limit the spread of COVID-19 in Norway. Universities had to switch to online teaching overnight. There is still uncertainty how measures to control the pandemic will keep affecting universities in the short and middle term. Such measures have consequences on how to carry out research that usually relies on students, researcher and volunteers using the equipment and applications. Our group carries out research on virtual/augmented/extended reality (VR/AR/XR) for immersive training and learning. This research often involves user studies. We had established procedures on how to use the equipment, carry out demonstrations and teaching for students, teachers and visitors, develop projects as part of bachelor and master projects and test new applications with volunteers. The measures taken by authorities to control the spread of the pandemic made it difficult or unfeasible to carry out some of those activities. In this paper we describe how our group and XR lab reacted after universities were closed to students' presence in campus in March 2020. We present our actions to keep research ongoing, our evaluation of some of those actions and discuss how we had to change the way we operate our XR lab in order to continue teaching and research in the near future, under the assumption that restrictions due to the pandemic can be re-implemented at short notice. We propose procedures to run an XR lab in a manner that inspires visitors to feel safe and confident of using the equipment. Our contribution is the proposal of procedures to run an educational XR lab safely and contribute towards the conversation about how to carry out research involving users in XR under pandemic restrictions.