Sixteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Field exercises represent a critical experiential learning component that help learners ground sustainability concepts to their applications with the help of a problem-based, socially-rich pedagogy in which the instructor serves as a learning catalyst. In this study, we share an immersive mixed-reality (IMR) teaching and learning model that can help prepare learners for field excursions using interactive, graded 360 Online Reality (360VR) field lessons. We investigate how Instructor-guided 360VR lessons, completed before actual field excursions, may help engage students in the experiential learning activities in the field, and guide pre-trip discussions and flipped classroom activities. As a proof-of-concept, we first filmed a series of 360 field lectures focusing on food systems sustainability in northern Thailand peasant farming communities. Next, these 360 videos were converted into interactive 360VR lessons included in the curriculum of a faculty-led, sustainability-focused, study abroad course offered in the School of Earth, Society, and Environment (SESE) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We assess students’ learning and interaction with the 360VR field lessons using the Kirkpatrick scale. We explore how 360VR emerging educational technologies and the IMR model may help to foster a constructivist-based learning environment, in which learners can build empathy, meaning, and context for sustainability topics before embarking on the actual field excursion.