Methodologies and Intelligent Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning, 9th International Conference

Resumen

Students consider spatial comprehension as one of the major difficulties in engineering studies. A good example of this is the teaching-learning process of ternary phase diagrams (TPDs) where students´ spatial abilities are put to the test. To solve this problem, two virtual learning environments (VLEs) based on virtual reality (VR) are presented in this paper. In essence, they consist of 3D interactive applications designed for interacting in real time with a TPD in different ways: rotating view, exploding view phases, changing point of view, observing hidden zones of the TPD by applying transparency option, cutting the diagram revealing isothermal sections, etc. According to students’ opinion shown in this paper, the usefulness of VR in topics that exhibit spatial comprehension difficulties is revealed. Furthermore, comparing the results using each VLE -one developed using technologies from several years ago and the other one using a more updated technology-, the students´ opinion reflects the importance of the VLE design on the motivation that this type of didactic tools awakens in students for being used.