TY - JOUR
T1 - Transforming Earth Science Education Through Immersive Experiences
T2 - Delivering on a Long Held Promise
AU - Klippel, Alexander
AU - Zhao, Jiayan
AU - Jackson, Kathy Lou
AU - La Femina, Peter
AU - Stubbs, Chris
AU - Wetzel, Ryan
AU - Blair, Jordan
AU - Wallgrün, Jan Oliver
AU - Oprean, Danielle
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - The value of field trips is undisputed across disciplines. Field-site visits whether in social or physical sciences provide grounding for place- and discovery-based learning. Yet field trips have limitations that can now be overcome by the promise of immersive technologies that can improve quality and accessibility. This promise is twofold: First, we can harness advancements made in sensing technologies to create immersive experiences of places across the earth efficiently; second, we can provide detailed empirical evaluations on immersive learning and quantify educational value. We report on a study that splits an introductory geosciences course into two groups with one group experiencing a traditional field trip, while a second group visits the same site virtually, immersing the students in the site using a head-mounted device. Results show the advantages of virtual field trips (VFTs) concerning enjoyment, learning experience, and actual lab scores. We embed the discussion of these results into a more general assessment of the advantages of VFTs and a taxonomy of VFTs as a basis for future studies.
AB - The value of field trips is undisputed across disciplines. Field-site visits whether in social or physical sciences provide grounding for place- and discovery-based learning. Yet field trips have limitations that can now be overcome by the promise of immersive technologies that can improve quality and accessibility. This promise is twofold: First, we can harness advancements made in sensing technologies to create immersive experiences of places across the earth efficiently; second, we can provide detailed empirical evaluations on immersive learning and quantify educational value. We report on a study that splits an introductory geosciences course into two groups with one group experiencing a traditional field trip, while a second group visits the same site virtually, immersing the students in the site using a head-mounted device. Results show the advantages of virtual field trips (VFTs) concerning enjoyment, learning experience, and actual lab scores. We embed the discussion of these results into a more general assessment of the advantages of VFTs and a taxonomy of VFTs as a basis for future studies.
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U2 - 10.1177/0735633119854025
DO - 10.1177/0735633119854025
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85068142006
VL - 57
SP - 1745
EP - 1771
JO - Journal of Educational Computing Research
JF - Journal of Educational Computing Research
SN - 0735-6331
IS - 7
ER -