How Academics and the Public Experienced Immersive Virtual Reality for Geo-Education

• Published in: Geosciences
• Main Authors: Bonali, Fabio Luca, Russo, Elena, Vitello, Fabio, Antoniou, Varvara, Marchese, Fabio, Fallati, Luca, Bracchi, Valentina Alice, Corti, Noemi, Savini, Alessandra, Whitworth, Malcolm, Drymoni, Kyriaki, Pasquaré Mariotto, Federico, Nomikou, Paraskevi, Sciacca, Eva, Bressan, Sofia, Falsaperla, Susanna, Reitano, Danilo, van Wyk de Vries, Benjamin, Krokos, Mel, Panieri, Giuliana, Stiller-Reeve, Mathew Alexander, Vizzari, Giuseppe, Becciani, Ugo, Tibaldi, Alessandro
• Other Authors: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milan Bicocca, Italy, INAF-Istituto di Radioastronomia, Bologna, Italy, Department of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, School of the Environment, Geography and Geosciences, University of Portsmouth, UK, Department of Human and Innovation Sciences, Insubria University, Como, Italy, INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, Italy, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Sezione OE, Catania, Italia, Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, Observatoire du Physique du Globed, Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont, France, School of Creative Technologies, University of Portsmouth, UK, CAGE, Center for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate, The Arctic University of Tromsø, Norway, Department of Informatics, Systems and Communication, University of Milan Bicocca, Italy, Center for Climate and Energy Transformation, University of Bergen, Norway
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI 2022
• Subjects: immersive virtual reality; geology; photogrammetry; education; Iceland; Santorini; Etna; 04.04. Geology; 05.03. Educational; History of Science; Public Issues; 05.04. Instrumentation and techniques of general interest; 04.08. Volcanology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2122/15265; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences12010009

Immersive virtual reality can potentially open up interesting geological sites to students, academics and others who may not have had the opportunity to visit such sites previously. We study how users perceive the usefulness of an immersive virtual reality approach applied to Earth Sciences teaching and communication. During nine immersive virtual reality-based events held in 2018 and 2019 in various locations (Vienna in Austria, Milan and Catania in Italy, Santorini in Greece), a large number of visitors had the opportunity to navigate, in immersive mode, across geological landscapes reconstructed by cutting-edge, unmanned aerial system-based photogrammetry techniques. The reconstructed virtual geological environments are specifically chosen virtual geosites, from Santorini (Greece), the North Volcanic Zone (Iceland), and Mt. Etna (Italy). Following the user experiences, we collected 459 questionnaires, with a large spread in participant age and cultural background. We find that the majority of respondents would be willing to repeat the immersive virtual reality experience, and importantly, most of the students and Earth Science academics who took part in the navigation confirmed the usefulness of this approach for geo-education purposes. This research has been provided in the framework of the following projects: (i) the MIUR project ACPR15T4_00098–Argo3D (http://argo3d.unimib.it/ (accessed on 26 November 2021)); (ii) 3DTeLC Erasmus + Project 2017-1-UK01-KA203-036719 (http://www.3dtelc.com (accessed on 26 November 2021)); (iii) EGU 2018 Public Engagement Grant (https://www.egu.eu/outreach/peg/ (accessed on 26 November 2021)). Agisoft Metashape is acknowledged for photogrammetric data processing. This article is also an outcome of Project MIUR–Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2018–2022. Finally, this paper is an outcome of the Virtual Reality lab for Earth Sciences—GeoVires lab (https://geovires.unimib.it/ (accessed on 26 November 2021)). The work supports UNESCO IGCP 692 ‘Geoheritage for Resilience’. Published ...