Using Virtual Humans in 360-degree Immersive Digital Sites to Practice Communication Skills within Complex Spatiotemporal Contexts

对于从航空到化学和建筑工程等工程领域的学生来说，直接观察专业人士并在现实生活环境中与他们交流是一种有益的经验。虽然可以安排面对面的实地访问来实现这一目标，但访问带来了重大的后勤和安全挑战。此外，在组织现场访问时，特别是对教育机构和教职员工来说，财务、法律和时间方面的限制是固有的。另一种选择是使用虚拟现实为学生提供身临其境的数字学习体验，这些体验接近现实生活，但没有面对面实地考察的费用和限制。在这个项目中，佛罗里达大学将在建筑工程教学中探索这种新的范式。该项目的目标是使用名为iVISIT的身临其境的数字环境教授建筑工程，该环境以虚拟人类专业人员与学生在虚拟建筑工地上合作为特色。该项目将为工程专业学生提供在建筑工地复杂的、数据丰富的环境中导航的机会，在那里他们可以与虚拟人类专业人员、工程结构和设备进行交互。学生将观察设计挑战，并与虚拟人专业人员交流，以更好地了解和解决这些挑战。一项准实验和定性教育研究设计将比较虚拟网站访问和面对面网站访问的影响。这些结果预计将产生关于这种身临其境的虚拟环境对学生学习、交流和时空技能的影响的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Direct observation of professionals and communication with them in real-life environments is a beneficial experience for students in engineering fields ranging from aeronautical to chemical and construction engineering. Although in-person site visits can be arranged to achieve this objective, the visits present significant logistical and safety challenges. In addition, financial, legal, and time constraints are inherent in organizing site visits, especially for educational institutions and faculty. One alternative is to use virtual reality to provide students with immersive digital learning experiences that are close to real life, but that do not have the expense and constraints of in-person field trips. In this project, the University of Florida will explore this novel paradigm in construction engineering instruction. The goal of the project is to teach construction engineering using an immersive digital environment called iVisit, which features virtual human professionals working collaboratively with students on virtual construction sites. This project will provide engineering students with the opportunity to navigate the complex, data-rich environment of a construction site at which they can interact with virtual human professionals, engineering structures, and equipment. Students will observe design challenges and communicate with virtual human professionals to better understand and resolve those challenges. A quasi-experimental and qualitative educational research design will compare the impact of virtual site visits to in-person site visits. These results are anticipated to generate knowledge about the impact of this immersive virtual environment on student learning, communication, and spatio-temporal skills.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.