Bringing the Field to the Classroom: Immersive Virtual Fieldtrips in Undergraduate Geoscience Courses

Field experiences are a fundamental aspect of undergraduate geoscience courses and curriculum. Unfortunately, field excursions can be logistically difficult, time and resource consuming, and are not always accessible for people with disabilities. The expansion of high-spatial resolution remotely sensed data and data products, and software that facilitates the development of inexpensive 3D models of the natural environment (e.g., Structure from Motion (SfM)) are opening the doors to visualizing, quantifying, and modeling geologic, tectonic, geomorphic, and geodynamic processes. The integration of these data sets with other geophysical, geochemical and geologic data is providing opportunities for the development of immersive virtual reality field trips (iVFTs) in the geosciences. iVFTs increase accessibility in the geosciences, by providing experiences that allow for: 1) exploration of field locations that might not be easily tenable for introductory or majors courses; 2) exploration of field techniques; 3) accessibility to outcrops for students with physical disabilities; and 4) the development of online geosciences courses.

We have developed a workflow for producing iVFTs and tools to make quantitative observations (e.g., distance, area, and volume) within the immersive virtual reality environment. We use a combination of terrestrial LiDAR and SfM data, 360° photos and videos, and other geophysical, geochemical and geologic data to develop realistic experiences for students to be exposed to the geosciences from sedimentary geology to physical volcanology. We present three iVFTs: 1) Inside the Volcano: Exploring monogenetic volcanism at Thrihnukagigar Iceland; 2) Changes in Depositional Environment in a Sedimentary Sequence: The Reedsville and Bald Eagle Formations, Pennsylvania; and 3) From Outcrop to Orogeny: Using a Local Outcrop to Explore Regional Geologic and Tectonic Processes. The latter two iVFTs are based on field labs from our introductory Physical Geology course for majors in Geoscience and Engineering. We have tested our iVFTs over four semesters, and present the results of our studies.