Mixed Reality and Mobile Gaming for 21st Century Engineering Education

最近的极端天气，如飓风桑迪和卡特里娜，显示了基础设施恶化和公民没有准备好应对这种规模的自然灾害的后果。岩土工程专业的本科生需要实际的经验，使他们能够理解和处理防洪设计中固有的风险。由于游戏使人们能够在虚拟世界中体验陌生的事物，并以多种方式进行试验和失败，而不会出现现实世界中发生的后果，因此它们是在高风险环境中学习设计的绝佳工具。研究团队将开发和实施一款可移植和可扩展的混合现实和移动(MR&AMP；M)教育游戏--《地质探索者》，该游戏可以与传统的岩土工程教育相结合。它将在伦斯勒理工学院、南卫理公会大学、曼哈顿学院和加州州立大学富勒顿的现有岩土工程课程中进行测试和实施。该项目将1)开发一个专注于防洪设计和现场测试的新的MR&amp；M游戏，其中包括实时嵌入游戏的工具，以监测学生学习岩土工程科目的进展；2)开发和实施一个课程模块，将MR&amp；M游戏环境整合到岩土工程课程课程中，并将包括实际实验室测试、虚拟现场测试、理论系统设计和虚拟实践体验；3)开发和实施混合(面对面和在线)传播模式，将游戏环境的使用扩大到岩土工程教育工作者；以及4)评估项目在实现前三个目标方面的效果。

Recent weather extremes, e.g., Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina, have shown the consequences of the combination of a deteriorating infrastructure and a citizenry that is unprepared to deal with natural disasters of this scale. Undergraduate students in geotechnical engineering need realistic experience that enables them to understand and process the risks inherent in flood-protection design. Because games enable people to experience the unfamiliar in a virtual world and to experiment and fail in multiple ways without the consequences that occur in the real world, they are an excellent vehicle for learning about design in a high-risk environment. The research team will develop and implement a transferable and scalable Mixed Reality and Mobile (MR&M) Educational Game, "Geo Explorer," that can be integrated with traditional geotechnical engineering education. It will be tested and implemented in existing geotechnical engineering courses at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Southern Methodist University, Manhattan College and California State University, Fullerton. The project will 1) develop a new MR&M game focused on flood-protection design and field testing that includes real-time game-embedded tools to monitor student progress toward learning geotechnical engineering subjects; 2) develop and implement a course module, which integrates the MR&M gaming environment into geotechnical course curricula and will include actual lab testing, virtual field testing, theoretical system design and virtual practical experience; 3) develop and implement a hybrid (face-to-face and online) dissemination model for expanding the use of the gaming environment to geotechnical engineering educators; and 4) evaluate the project effectiveness at accomplishing the first three goals.