Virtual Reality and Structures Education?

As Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality become more ubiquitous, it is useful to explore their applications in education. Will there be benefits to including more digital tools in the classroom for this entirely digital generation? For example, can an interactive 3D representation of a buildingís structure aid student learning about the system and load flow? This paper will present the in-progress results from a collaborative research project entitled, ìVirtual Reality as a Vehicle for Education in the Domains of Building Systems and Construction Materials. This funded educational research project was designed to test how immersive experiences such as virtual reality might influence the understanding of load paths in a building. The presentation will introduce the collaborative team of civil engineering and architecture, explain the goals of the funding organization, and describe the student groups being tested. The research methods will be outlined including the IRB process, the design of the virtual reality experiment, and creation of the evaluation mechanisms. Also, the outcomes from a student survey about the experience will be shown. With three years of testing completed, incomplete results will be shared as well as incomplete conclusions. Though using the same testing mechanism, the results vary significantly by discipline and remain inconclusive for architecture students. Lastly, there will be some discussion of research quandaries, lessons along.