Auryan Ratliff and the world of emerging technology

Auryan Ratliff, Director of Creative and Emerging Technologies at EdPlus at ASU, is one of the driving forces in the strategic integration of new technologies into the educational framework of Arizona State University and the workplace culture at EdPlus.

His career at EdPlus mirrors the rapidly evolving emerging technologies with which he works. 

Starting as a student worker in graphic design in 2015, Ratliff carved a path through UX design, design operations and then immersive product design.

Today, his expertise is channeled into two distinct yet interconnected domains: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Extended Reality (XR). This dual focus on AI and XR ensures the offerings at EdPlus are continuously evolving and pushing the boundaries of what is possible in education and the workplace. 

In the realm of AI, he manages efforts across three pivotal areas:

• Establishing an AI-first culture at ASU
• Facilitating upskilling around the technology to streamline internal processes and enhance workplace productivity
• Leveraging AI to amplify student success to innovate in the XR realm, Ratliff and his team craft immersive experiences that captivate students, transporting them to the frontiers of virtual engagement and interactive learning.

We spoke to Ratliff about his work and growth at EdPlus, how AI and XR are being harnessed to help students, and the advice he has for student workers following in his footsteps.

Question: What is your background and how did you come to EdPlus?
Answer: I was inspired by my roommate who worked here. He would occasionally have people from EdPlus over to our house and I had the opportunity to meet all these wonderful people doing all this fantastic work for ASU. Luckily for me, they thought I would be a good fit for EdPlus and helped me make my first connection with the organization. Initially, I freelanced for my roommate, building presentations for him when needed. When a student worker position opened, I applied and was able to secure the position. I started by doing graphic design and a small bit of web design. Things really shifted for us when Amanda Gully, Chief of Product and User Experience, joined our design and development team and brought the concept of UX design with her. We became more focused on the larger user experience, the larger customer experience, doing a lot more web design and interaction design and moving to some of the more modern prototyping tools. I became a full UX designer from there, and after a year I moved into design operations.

Around that time, the first set of commercial Virtual Reality (VR) headsets was just starting to be released and I was very passionate about the technology. I was constantly bringing my own VR headset into the office, trying to get people to try out the technology and see what it was capable of. Then, I was contracted by The Learning Futures Collaboratory (now known as Next Lab) at ASU to start designing for some of the XR experiences that they were building. At that point, management here at EdPlus decided to merge the two fields. That’s when my role expanded from Senior Design Strategist to Lead Design Evangelist for Immersive & Multimedia Design. 

From there, I went on to Immersive Experience Design Manager, which is when I founded  SPLIT Studio, working with Dreamscape, building experiences for ASU Online, and managing a team of 18, with 12 student workers underneath me. Coming from a student worker position myself, I see the full circle journey starting to complete itself.

Q: What are you most passionate about in your career and field?
A: I’m just passionate about technology and figuring out interesting ways of using it. I’m constantly going to folks around EdPlus showing them new technologies or demos we’ve built and raving about how cool the tech is and all the ways we can start to use it. First, it was VR, now, it’s AI. And what started as a passion quickly became proof of concepts, which became real-world projects, that have now become initiatives that I am leading. It truly is a dream scenario, and I am so moved to see how my love for technology has helped push me to the position I am in now.

Q: What AI initiatives are you working on?
A: Some of the initiatives that we’re working on include a monthly AI upskilling series we are doing in collaboration with Enterprise Technology (ET). The sessions are for everyone across the ASU Enterprise and are geared toward beginners to help them get started with the technology. We’re covering topics like “What is AI?” and “How do I use ChatGPT” as well as presenting other low-code solutions that enable people to start leveraging AI in their work today. We’re helping to build an AI-centric culture at ASU, and I’m really excited about that.

We also have some tools that we’re building internally that are exciting, like the Degree Recommendation Engine. When students explore the ASU Online website, the issue we run into a lot is choice paralysis - there are too many degrees to browse through, and rather than look through them all, students can get overwhelmed and abandon their discovery journey entirely. With the use of AI, we designed a smart quiz for learners to help identify degrees that would be a good match for them. It factors in such considerations as whether they’re a freshman or transfer student and their desired earning potential. We added qualitative aspects, like whether they want their job to have a social impact or whether they want an office job versus something outdoors.

Not only does this tool help students find relevant degrees, but the engine goes a step further and generates a paragraph that explains to the learner, based on the information that was given, why these degrees would be a good fit. Now you’re not just getting the “what” in terms of the degrees you should take but the “why” behind the decisions and recommendations we made. This is a step towards personalization on the ASU Online website that was not possible previously, and we are really excited about it.

Q: What do you enjoy most about your field of work?
A: I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a technologist and futurist at heart. The fact that I get to play with all of these new, cool technologies is unbelievable and one of the best parts of my job. And It’s not just playing with the technology it’s figuring out how we can use it to empower learners to be more successful. Sometimes, when you work with these new technologies, your goal is not always the most egalitarian output. I love that I get to figure out how to use these tools for good and most importantly for education. At the end of the day, we all want to be educated. We all want to be informed. We all want to be on the same page. I think ASU is actively moving towards that goal in a way other universities aren’t, and it makes me so proud to be a part of this institution.

Q: What is Realm 4 and how does EdPlus fit into that?
A: As the capabilities of immersive technology grew and the value of that technology in the classroom became more apparent and congruent with our charter, the fourth realm of learning at ASU was formed. It is a mission, and a collection of projects and experiences dedicated to educating students through exploration using immersive technology like VR, in comparison to some of the more passive means of teaching others use today.

When you think about immersive technologies, they essentially exist along the XR spectrum. XR is an abbreviation for eXtended Reality, which is a catch-all term for all of the new immersive modalities that have become more commercial in recent years. This includes mediums like augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality.

With the introduction of the 4th Realm of Learning, EdPlus saw the value in having an internal XR resource that could act on this Mission and find opportunities for these types of experiences in our department, and that’s when SPLIT Studio was formed.

Q: What is  SPLIT Studio and how does it fit into the immersive development happening at EdPlus?
A: Beyond sounding cool, the name SPLIT holds a very important meaning to the team. SPLIT is an acronym that stands for Student Powered Lab for Immersive Technology, and we are exactly that. A majority of the SPLIT Studio team are students being led by full-time employees in their respective fields. The team is composed of five unique work streams, including 3D art, UX design, game design, development, and content. Together with these teams, we are producing high-quality XR work for ASU Online, Dreamsacpe, and our partners.

This unique structure of leveraging students does two main things for us. Firstly, it allows us to scale in a way that wouldn’t be possible using just full-time employees. Secondly, it provides a dual-prong approach for educating our students, which is to say, not only do our students get to experience immersive and explorative learning but we’re also providing real working opportunities for them to acquire skills and experience so they can pursue this type of work after graduation.

This team has been able to build several different experiences in a number of different mediums. We have 2D experiences that are currently being used in ASU Online. Gamified learning experiences, like our Energy Economics Simulation and The Workshop: A Geodesign Simulation, have been implemented for over 2 years now.

Currently, we are working on larger VR experiences for Dreamscape Learn. These include two experiences we are building out for the Global Futures Laboratory around one of their courses, CGF 494 Exploring Global Futures. In these experiences, students will be able to visit the coral reef and the Arctic to see the effects of climate change in a way that is only possible in VR.

Q: Do you have any advice for student workers?
A: We work in a very unique way at EdPlus. Not every workplace would have recognized the skills I brought to the table as a student and given me the opportunities to flourish the way EdPlus did. We really embrace student workers here. So many of our leads started as student workers, not just me. My journey isn’t unique to me, I think it’s definitely possible for other students to achieve. Just find what you are passionate about and stick with it. If you do those things, eventually, it will work out.