VIRTUAL- AND AUGMENTED-REALITY PLATFORMS FOR STUDENT LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

VR and AR technology can provide beneficial learning opportunities for students from all disciplines through field-related geoscience experiences.

The application of gigapixel imagery to construct virtual fieldtrips and geologic sample explorations has become more efficient with increased camera resolution and software capabilities. However, to be useful in assessing student understanding, the technology needs to provide a method for student interaction and submission of feedback (answers) to instructors. However, constructing such interactions can be daunting. Some of the technology previously available for creating the necessary web pages has been deprecated and is no longer supported by many modern web browsers.

This presenter will provide a demonstration of a web page template technology to allow educators to create the web presentations of virtual field locations and virtual geologic samples, including 3D virtual-reality hand samples or “outcrop” boulders. Utilizing an open-source javascript library that does not require any browser plugins, basic web page templates can be created. These webpages only require the educator to enter the url of the resource to use in the student’s web view, in addition to any inquiry instructions to the student or potential questions for the student to consider and answer. The imagery can be housed on various servers, including those images uploaded directly to the Gigapan.org website, opening up a huge library of geoscience-related gigapixel imagery locations. Also presented will be examples of platforms useful to present augmented reality (AR) outcrops in conjunction with existing geoscape boulders recently integrated with new construction on our campus. These AR integrations create a combination “real”-“virtual-real”-“augmented-real” field opportunity for all students across campus.