The Value of Being There: Toward a Science of Immersive Virtual Field Trips

The democratization of immersive experiences both from a perspective of creating them and of accessing them requires and allows for thinking about scientific, evidence-based design principles for immersive learning. Immersive learning has the potential to paradigmatically change place-based learning and as such touches the very core of earth sciences. To foster the empirical grounding of immersive learning, we detail a series of empirical evaluations of a geosciences field trip, common in undergraduate education across numerous disciplines. We conducted two studies so far that build on a previously proposed research framework in which we developed a basic taxonomy of virtual field trips distinguishing between basic, plus, and advanced experiences. The empirical evaluations draw a picture of the value of immersive experiences as a supplement and potentially proxy of actual field trips and how immersive technologies allow for enhancing (virtual) field trip experiences that are otherwise not possible. Results show an overwhelmingly positive response of students to virtual field trips with significantly higher valued learning experience and enjoyment. Furthermore, the introduction of pseudo-aerial imagery shows a significant improvement of the participants spatial situation model. As contextualizing and spatially grounding is essential for place-based learning experiences, plus versions of virtual field trips have the potential to add value to the learning outcome and immersive virtual field trip experience. We discuss the positive results as well as critical feedback such as the absence of touch in virtual experiences and lay out our vision for the future of immersive learning experiences across the earth sciences.