Tools for Teaching Mining Students in Virtual Reality based on 360° Video Experiences

In recent years, Virtual Reality (VR) technology has found their way into higher education. Its power lays in its ability to provide immersive three-dimensional (3D) experiences that help conveying educational content whilst providing rich interaction possibilities. Especially in mining engineering education, VR has high potential to reshape the provided learning content. Field trips, i.e. mine visits, are an integral part of the education and necessary to transfer knowledge to students. However, field trips are time and cost intensive and mines often have tight entry regulations. As a result, the number of field trips is limited. VR-based field trips offer a considerable alternative presupposed they replicate the complex mining environment realistically. In addition, VR mines have the advantage of taking students close to events (e.g. explosions) that are impossible to demonstrate in a real mine. However, generating realistic 3D content for VR still involves complex, and thus time consuming tasks. Therefore, we present the design of a VR Framework for teaching mining students based on 360° video data, its evaluation in three different lectures, and its extension based on the feedback we received from students and teachers from four different universities.