IMPROVING ACCESS TO FIELD-BASED LEARNING BENEFITS THROUGH AN INTERACTIVE METAVERSE SIMULATION OF FIELD SITES

Interactive virtual world technologies, also known as metaverses, have the potential to revolutionize experiential education accessibility for neurodiverse and disabled learners. This is particularly true for those whose needs may make field-based learning a physically or neurologically hostile proposition. Field-based learning offers learners unique opportunities for comprehensive content interaction, problem-solving, and opportunities for inquiry. Unfortunately field-based educational opportunities also come with inherent barriers that can make accessing its benefits difficult for many learners. These can range from time and financial obstacles, to stimulus overload, to outright unsafe physical conditions. This in turn can create a disparity of access, boxing out many learners whose neurological or physical disabilities conflict with common field conditions. Using the metaverse technologies offered via the company GatherTown, I have built a series of detailed, interactive virtual spaces that simulate geologic field settings. These environments have since been used teach students elements of geoscience including biostratigraphy, mapping, paleoenvironmental reconstruction and climate change science. Initial outcomes for remote learners have been extremely positive, with projects such as regional geology mapping and stratigraphic column construction from landscape surveys. My next phase, meant to improve learner interactivity and content understanding, includes incorporating a custom-programmed AI bot trained on learning content targets. This will better allow students to ask content questions in real-time in-world, speeding up the feedback loops that drive learning and help reduce frustration when encountering knowledge gaps. (Of course the instructor is still a human educator available to answer student questions via email.) By blending active learning pedagogical practices with elements of video game design and trained AI model text feedback systems, these virtual learning worlds have the potential to vastly improve access to comprehensive learning opportunities for neurodiverse learners by productively simulating field-based learning experiences.