VR EARTH SCIENCE: IN THE ‘FIELD’ USING DIFFERENT VR TECHNOLOGIES AND METHODOLOGIES

Virtual Reality (VR) technologies are expanding at a rapid rate, bolstered by the growing need for remote learning. Classes and labs that make use of lots of fieldwork have the potential for VR technology to improve educational outcomes by giving students a ‘virtual’ hands-on setting to learn in. For these reasons, undergraduate courses in the Geosciences may be more effective if VR technologies are integrated. However, there is still much work needed to determine which lesson structures and which hardware are best to teach various types of materials. Additionally, it is important to consider whether we are reaching underrepresented groups in STEM fields, since they are the most vulnerable to changes in classroom environments, especially when expensive hardware is potentially required. Here, we present preliminary findings on learning outcomes in courses that used VR in three different ways: 1) Use of some aspects of VR including 360 videos of sites available to students without headsets, 2) VR Labs, and 3) and classes taught fully within a VR environment (using ENGAGE software). We find that the use of some type of VR experience improved classes across the board. Fully immersive VR classes were highly engaging for high school students in our summer camps, as well as for our undergraduates. Earth Science labs saw a non-statistically significant increase in scores when the labs were changed to all VR labs, but the VR labs were better received by students. We describe our plans to make the technology more accessible to our students and to optimize learning outcomes to the possibilities presented by these new teaching environments.