Teaching students to build historical buildings in virtual reality

1. Teaching students to build historical buildings in virtual reality A didactic strategy for learning History of Art in secondary education Eloi Biosca 2009

2. Virtual reality is one of the most innovative amongst existing technologies, and it has greater potential to transform learning.

3. In a subject like History, and more specifically History of Architecture, the fact that students can in real time freely move around historical spaces and scenes virtually reconstructed by computer is undeniably advantageous.

4. However, what would happen if the students could become the actual designers of virtual architectural monuments object of study.

5. What difficulties would the students encounter with the virtual reality software?

6. What dynamics would be established inside the classroom between the students and the teacher?

7. Would their level of content learning improve?

8. The following research was developed in a secondary school classroom at IES Eugeni d’Ors in Vilafranca del Penedès, Catalonia, Spain. The work was carried out over three whole school years, from 2004 to 2007, and was integrated in the organizational structure of the school as an optional three-month subject. The total number of students involved was 133, and the educational level chosen was which corresponds to 13-year-old students.

9. The main objective of the study was to observe the nature and the dynamics of the learning process in the classroom when a methodology with the student as designers of historical monuments is put into practice.

10. Firstly, in order to build a virtual world it is necessary to learn and master the workings of an appropriate software. In this case the software chosen was: Superscape 3DWebmaster

11. Also, it is necessary a drag-and-drop warehouse of three-dimensional pieces for each of the buildings and styles, which the student can select, move and modify in order to construct the building.

12. At the same time, a specific tutorial was designed, adapted to the ability of the students and the objectives of their fieldwork, in order for them to learn how to operate the module.

13. The tutorial consisted in a guide which led the students step by step through the process of construction of a small Romanesque chapel, during which the students became familiar with the software’s basic menus and commands.

14. One of the student’s works was the reconstruction of a Romanesque church in ruins, in which from the existing remains the student had to restore in situ to its original appearance.

15. Working on a ruin forces students to identify elements still standing, replace the half destroyed part with complete ones and add the missing pieces.

16. This is a sample of the results

17. Other buildings constructed were:

18. A Catalan Gothic style church

19. The Roman Temple in Barcelona

20. A French Gothic style church

21. Aya Sofya in Instanbul

22. Conclusions

23. What is learnt and how? 1.The objective is not to learn exhaustive structured content delivered by the teacher, but rather for the students to acquire that knowledge through carrying out the task of building a virtual historic monument. 2.The work performance was considerable, averaging 3.5 virtual buildings a term, corresponding to between 6 and 8 hours of work each building. 3.The architectural quality of the buildings was also very satisfactory in 89% of the projects, and the average mark of all the building was also quite high, with a 7.2 out of 10.

24. What type of students benefit the most? 1.Among students who usually got good marks in other subjects, the academic results obtained in virtual construction were also high, averaging slightly higher (0.5 points difference in favour of the latter); however, among students of medium, poor or deficient average performance, the marks obtained in virtual construction showed an even bigger difference as compared to their other subjects (1.5 points higher). Therefore, bearing in mind that the average and poor performance students are those most benefited by this methodology, and taking into consideration that one of the challenges of pedagogy is precisely that of improving global performance and helping weaker student achieve higher marks without bringing down the level of requirement, we can conclude that the evaluation of the field work is very positive. 2.On the other hand, regarding gender issues, the only clear differences are related only to initial motivation. That is, although this experience was part of an optional subject, more interest was detected among boys, who made up 68% of the students enrolled, than among girls, 32%. This greater initial interest is related to the boys’ particular curiosity for virtual reality and greater predisposition towards the more technical and graphical side of working with computers. All in all, regarding academic performance, the conclusions do not observe a significant difference between the boys’ and girls’ results.

25. Virtual Reality is a great motivating factor 1.Among the factors to be taken into account, previous and initial motivation must be emphasized, since among the students enrolled, 78% confessed to having enrolled due to their interest in virtual reality technology, the content object of study and the methodology employed. 2.This interest led to a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere in class, where order or discipline problems were rare, and a collaborative and mutual-help attitude and a favourable set of mind predisposed the students towards learning.

26. What is the ideal teaching method for working with Virtual Reality? • 1.As the student is the actual constructor of the historical building object of study, the most suitable environment in which to carry out the activities is within a methodology of autonomous, collaborative and active learning. • 2.The advantages of the method are the following: • - The learning started from scratch. • - As a software programme is a tool, learning to use it is an ongoing process. • - The learning process caused instant and immediate satisfaction. • - The activities tended to push the student to his or her own limit of ability. • - Work autonomy. Each group was allowed to work at their own pace, without constant instructions from the teacher.

27. Is it possible to turn a complex Virtual Reality development programme into a learning tool at the disposal of a secondary school? • 1. The possibility of operating the development software gave the students the same degree of freedom and creativity that professionals enjoy when they design their virtual products. • 2. Although the students initially found it hard to operate due to lack of experience and to insecurity, in the later stages this initial difficulty disappeared, replaced by a high level of understanding and familiarity with the use of the software.

28. Was it possible to find a suitable assessment system? • As the learning process is based on the construction of different historical buildings in Virtual Reality, the assessment of the knowledge acquired and the competences that the students have developed is based on two factors: • 1.On one hand the assessment is based on observing the way that the students work and administer the information. considering the way the students administered the resources at their disposal, the reflection and reasoning process involved, and the interaction and participation within the group. • 2.On the other, the architectural assessment of the resulting virtual buildings, considering the number of buildings produced, the accuracy in architectural style and the level of architectural quality were taken into account.

29. What challenges does the teacher face in his work? 1.The teacher is no longer the main transmitter of knowledge, but rather a guide, a problem-solver that assesses, leaving the student s ample room for creativity and autonomy. 2.At the same time, if we introduce into this framework the operation of Virtual Reality Development software, the teacher must take on the added challenge of understanding the technology in depth and showing mastery in its practical use. 3.Regarding this point we feel it necessary to mention the need to research new types of software which would enable the construction of virtual buildings, with the same level of performance but more accessible and user-friendly, which would not require the users to have specific technical training.

30. The students’ response The satisfaction with this type of experience is practically unanimous among students, with very few exceptions. The most highly valued aspects of the methodology are the following: 1.Practical learning: being able to virtually experience the construction of a building and the need to place all its parts correctly following a logical architectural order, allows the students to remember the names of the elements and to understand space and architecture better. 2.Collaborative and autonomous work: the fact that the students were working without being constantly directed by the teacher forces the students to accept responsibility in their work and allows them to plan according to their own preferences, with their own priorities and pace. 3.Learning is related to fun: the expression “it’s fun” appears often in the interviews in all kinds of contexts and as a general response. It is a general and vague term but for the students also implies important values, since it relates to the satisfaction felt in experiencing the high degree of interaction of virtual reality and with the intensity and the nature of the stimuli they have received.

31. Who does Virtual Reality appeal to? Spectacular Entertainment Beauty Realism Creativity Interaction Protagonism Speed Satisfaction Stimulation Game

32. IES Eugeni d’Ors Vilafranca del Penedès (Catalonia – Spain) 2004 to 2007