EGU2020-13208
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-13208
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Learning geology using VR: student feedbacks on the VirtuaField applications

Sophie Viseur1, François Civet2, Juliette Lamarche1, Magali Rizza1, Lucilla Benedetti1, Jules Fleury1, Laurent Jorda3, Olivier Groussin3, Jean Borgomano1, and Philippe Léonide1
Sophie Viseur et al.
  • 1Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, IRD, INRA, Coll France, CEREGE, Aix-en-Provence, France
  • 2VR2Planets, Nantes, France
  • 3Université Aix-Marseille, LAM, MARSEILLE, France

Aix-Marseille University launched the VirtuaField project whose objective is to integrate DOMs into a VR application to provide students with a pedagogical tool enabling learning field practice.

Indeed, students have few occasions to train in the field during their academic curricula. Field trips are expensive and require a complex logistics. Nowadays, the photogrammetry or LIDAR techniques allow geoscientists to obtain High-Resolution 3D representations of outcrop geometries and textures, often termed as Digital Outcrop Models (DOM). DOMs are already used as pedagogical supports for practical exercises on computers such as fault throw or seismic occurrence calculation, or modelling 3D geological structures from outcrop interpretations. However, these exercises do not cover all required skills to gain autonomy and consistence in the field, such as the pertinent observation sampling. The computer engines are not convenient support for that task because the visualization, although in 3D, still depends on a 2D screen and does not preserve the 1:1 scale, which is of paramount importance for Geoscience interpretations.

The Virtual Reality (VR) technique is the ultimate way to provide a full 3D view, which can preserve the 1:1 scale, while benefiting from the numerical nature of the support (DOMs, DEM).

First prototypes were provided by the VR2Planets company from the case study of La Fare les Oliviers (SE France), which shows diffuse fractures and fracture corridors, in addition to sedimentological and geomorphological structures. The prototypes have been tested in training experiences with volunteer students. Surveys have been performed in order to obtain feedbacks from students on the ability of the VirtuaField application to gain field skills, but also on the more pertinent way to design the pedagogical tools. The synthesis of these feedbacks will be presented as well as a first outline of the pedagogical guidelines on using VR tools for educational purposes.

How to cite: Viseur, S., Civet, F., Lamarche, J., Rizza, M., Benedetti, L., Fleury, J., Jorda, L., Groussin, O., Borgomano, J., and Léonide, P.: Learning geology using VR: student feedbacks on the VirtuaField applications, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-13208, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-13208, 2020.

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