The value of field trips and associated activities in teaching and learning are plentiful, ranging from stimulating students’ interests and motivations in their courses to providing a unique first-hand learning experience allowing them to make connections between in-class concepts and the real world. Despite the educational benefits, conducting a field trip can be challenging due to a myriad of factors which have been greatly exacerbated by the prolonged impact of Covid-19.
Virtual field trips provide an equitable and accessible resource that can bring learning out of the classroom, where students get to see theoretical concepts come to life in industry settings and see connections between discipline areas and the interconnectivities between various systems.
A seamless ability for academic staff to integrate virtual field trips with interactive and engaging activities should encourage more academics to deploy field trips in their courses. Virtual field trips break the logistical barriers to learning and lead to further development of our educational model, combining online and on-campus learning to maximise the student experience. For science students, having applied and experiential learning activities is critical and has been found to be associated with positive traits including improved learners’ motivation and increased students’ scientific reasoning ability.
How does it work?
The tool provides a clickable map that allows students to move through an agricultural facility via 360⁰ images. At various stops, students can view interviews with facility workers and explore the facility through interactive hotspots and concept videos that bring the field trip to life.
Academics design scenario-based lessons that require students to draw on both their prior knowledge and knowledge gained by going on this virtual field trip to propose solutions. These lesson design incorporates elements of group work.
| Title | First Name | Last Name | Affiliation | Role in the project | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mr |
Suresh |
Krishnasamy |
School of Agriculture and Food Sciences |
Lead CI |
|
| eLIPSE | Software development team | elipse@eait.uq.edu.au +61 7 334 68018 |
Stage 1 of the project, which developed a virtual field trip to a nursery about 2 hours west of Brisbane, is complete. Additionally, a virtual field trip application developed by Australian Pork Industries has been integrated.
Stage 2 development work involves implementing additional functionalities and user interfaces to the benefit of both academic staff and students. For students, these enhancements include development of scenario-based activities, and interactive simulations as well as location-based geotagging functionalities. For staff, the enhancements include simplified user interfaces that facilitate creation of new virtual field trips by adding captured 360⁰ images along with hotspots, and customisation of activities to better suit their course content and delivery.
Stage 1 can be accessed from the Agricultural Corridor website at https://agco360.uqcloud.net/#/.
The Agricultural Corridor is built on the Prism360 platform, developed by eLIPSE. Academics wishing to develop a new application for a virtual field experience should contact eLIPSE.
Under development.
Marzipano, JavaScript, MongoDB, NodeJS, cloud services.
The development of the Prism platform was funded by a 2019 EAIT Teaching and Learning Grant.
Stage 1 of the development of the Agricultural Corridor was funded by a 2021 Australian Council of Deans of Science Teaching and Learning Grant. Stage 2 development is being funded by a 2022 Science Teaching and Learning Grant.