Field trips are widely recognized as an essential educational component to connect classrooms with the real world. When students don’t have access to real field trips, virtual ones have been developed by educators and researchers. Pedagogical agents have been applied to serve as a tour guide and educational tool that facilitate students learning in a virtual learning environment. Such agents are computer software generated and controlled entities that replicate or emulate humans. Previous studies have found that adding anthropomorphic traits to pedagogical agents in learning environments has significantly improved students’ learning experience; however, this area has yet been explored in the context of a virtual construction field trip. In this study, a virtual field trip to a complex mechanical room was developed using 360-degree panoramas and a pedagogical agent was employed to lead the tour. This study focuses on one single anthropomorphic trait - deictic gestures, which are pointing gestures used to refer to specific objects – and explores how such trait affects students’ quantitative learning outcomes and feedbacks on four aspects of the agent, including facilitating learning, credibility, human-like, and engaging. It was found that deictic gestures can improve students’ learning performance and attitudes on multiple aspects of the agent.
Comparison of in-person and virtual Grand Canyon undergraduate field trip learning outcomes
Field learning is fundamental in geoscience, but cost, accessibility, and other constraints limit equal access to these experiences. As technological advances afford ever more immersive and student-centered virtual field experiences, they are likely to have a growing role across geoscience education. They also serve as an important tool for providing high-quality online instruction, whether to fully online degree students, students in hybrid in-person/remote programs, or students experiencing disruptions to in-person learning, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. This mixed-methods study compared learning outcomes of an in-person (ipFT) and a virtual (iVFT) geoscience field trip to Grand Canyon National Park, each of which highlighted the Great Unconformity. Participants included introductory and advanced geology students. In the ipFT, students collectively explored the Canyon through the interpretive Trail of Time along the Canyon rim, guided by the course instructor. In the iVFT, students individually explored the Canyon and studied its geology at river level. 360° spherical images anchor the iVFTs and serve as a framework for programmed overlays that enable active learning and allow for adaptive feedback. We assessed cognitive and affective outcomes in both trips using common measures. Regression analysis showed the iVFT to be associated with significantly greater learning gains. The ipFT students had significantly higher positive affect scores pre-trip, reflecting their excitement for the trip. Overall, our results provide clear evidence that high-quality iVFTs can lead to better learning gains than ipFTs. Although field trips are employed for more than just content learning, this finding may encourage greater use of iVFTs in coursework.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2110775
- PAR ID:
- 10413723
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geoscience Education
- ISSN:
- 1089-9995
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 17
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
more » « less
-
null (Ed.)Site visits or field trips are an integral part of construction management education, providing students with experiential learning of jobsite conditions. However, these types of real-world opportunities are difficult to obtain within the current educational framework based on classroom instruction. To expose students to jobsite spatiotemporal contexts (spatial, temporal, or social situations), field trips must be organized at locations that are often inaccessible, dangerous, or expensive to reach. To address field trip barriers, this research proposes the use of iVisit—a proof-of-concept platform for guided interactive site visits that leverages 360-degree panoramas and virtual humans. In this paper, the technical requirements for the creation of digital site visit experiences and resulting educational platform are explained in detail. Additionally, a pilot study was conducted to assess the iVisit platform in terms of usability, presence, and student knowledge gains. A masonry materials’ site visit learning experience was designed and tested with 10 participants at introductory level construction courses. It was found that students perceived the iVisit guided tour as easy to use (SUS Usability Score – Mean = 86%; STD = 8.8%) and highly realistic (SUS Presence Score – Mean = 68.4%; STD = 14.4%). However, students answer approximately one-third of the presented knowledge questions correctly (Student Knowledge Score – Mean = 31.7%; STD = 25%). These outcomes in student knowledge gains were linked to low image quality in the 360-degree captures and augmented pictures within the digital site. Supporting feedback provided by the study participants suggested that future improvements to iVisit require higher image quality and some refinements to its user-interfaces to increase presence and knowledge gains.more » « less
-
Online modes of teaching and learning have gained increased attention following the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in education delivery trends likely to continue for the foreseeable future. It is therefore critical to understand the implications for student learning outcomes and their interest in or affinity towards the subject, particularly in water science classes, where educators have traditionally employed hands-on outdoor activities that are difficult to replicate online. In this study, we share our experiences adapting a field-based laboratory activity on groundwater to accommodate more than 700 students in our largest-enrollment general education course during the pandemic. As part of our adaptation strategy, we offered two versions of the same exercise, one in-person at the Mirror Lake Water Science Learning Laboratory, located on Ohio State University’s main campus, and one online. Although outdoor lab facilities have been used by universities since at least the 1970s, this research is novel in that 1) it considers not only student achievement but also affinity for the subject, 2) it is the first of its kind on The Ohio State University’s main campus, and 3) it was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when most university classes were unable to take traditional field trips. We used laboratory grades and a survey to assess differences in student learning and affinity outcomes for in-person and online exercises. Students who completed the in-person exercise earned better scores than their online peers. For example, in Fall 2021, the median lab score for the in-person group was 97.8%, compared to 91.7% for the online group. The in-person group also reported a significant ( p < 0.05) increase in how much they enjoyed learning about water, while online students reported a significant decrease. Online students also reported a significant decrease in how likely they would be to take another class in water or earth sciences. It is unclear whether the in-person exercise had better learning and affinity outcomes because of the hands-on, outdoor qualities of the lab or because the format allowed greater interaction among peers and teaching instructors (TAs). To mitigate disparities in student learning outcomes between the online and in-person course delivery, instructors will implement future changes to the online version of the lab to enhance interactions among students and TAs.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)The construction field trip is an interactive and essential component of construction education, and its significance is widely recognized by educators and researchers in the construction domain. However, due to its real-world nature, there are several challenges that limit the extensive employment of this teaching approach. A few examples of such spatiotemporal challenges are time conflict, large class sizes, short site visit duration, and not being able to see or hear in a crowded or noisy environment. Construction educators and researchers have been using virtual field trips to support traditional field trips or offer an alternative when these learning opportunities are not available. This paper presents the current status of virtual field trip application in construction education while specifically focusing on the construction subject areas, technology use, and learning assessment techniques used in those virtual field trips. The review shows that VFT has been mostly integrated with construction courses in fundamental and introductory level, and their learning objectives are mainly general and broad without a specific focus on certain construction aspects or techniques. The technologies to develop VFTs can be categorized into captured-reality using regular or 360 images or videos and virtual reality using computer-generated simulation of reality. Advantages and disadvantages of both technologies are discussed. Interview and questionnaires were mainly used to assess the reviewed VFT as a learning tool, and it is reported that in the majority of those papers, the feedback from students is mostly positive. These outcomes provide construction educators and researchers insights on successful implementation and potential challenges of virtual field trips in construction education.more » « less
-
more » « less
Virtual and immersive virtual reality, VR and iVR, provide flexible and engaging learning opportunities, such as virtual field trips (VFTs). Despite its growing popularity for education, understanding how iVR compared to non-immersive media influences learning is still challenged by mixed empirical results and a lack of longitudinal research. This study addresses these issues through an experiment in which undergraduate geoscience students attended two temporally separated VFT sessions through desktop virtual reality (dVR) or iVR, with their learning experience and outcomes measured after each session. Our results show higher levels of enjoyment and satisfaction as well as a stronger sense of spatial presence in iVR students in both VFTs compared to dVR students, but no improvement in learning outcomes in iVR compared to dVR. More importantly, we found that there exists a critical interaction between VR condition and repeated participation in VFTs indicating that longitudinal exposure to VFTs improves knowledge performance more when learning in iVR than through dVR. These results suggest that repeated use of iVR may be beneficial in sustaining students’ emotional engagement and compensating the initial deficiency in their objective learning outcomes compared to other less immersive technologies.
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2023.2186067
