Abstract:

The sudden need to find solutions for online didactics for Coronavirus emergency measures has turned into an opportunity for students and teachers of Politecnico di Torino. The university has decided to do something new by abandoning something old. Advanced didactics experimentation using Virtual Reality has started to analyze and discuss the projects that the students are developing as a delivery for their final exam. Students and teachers operate as avatars in the virtual space within Building Information models, with the possibility to move in different environments, observe together the critical points of the design or the digitalization process. This review mode allows the user to experience “from the inside” thanks to the use of a suitable collaboration software and viewers such as Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. A way of doing distance education certainly futuristic, a pilot experience in Italy and among the first cases in the world. Virtual reality is used not simply as a substitute for traditional teaching, but as an added value, which allows people to overcome physical barriers creating an effective interaction even at a distance. The trial is performed on four different courses of study, where the response of the students has been positive. Indeed, feedback from students reported a great interest towards the chance to use VR from a “serious perspective” and not only as a tool for video games, offering an exciting solution to the issues related to distance learning. Therefore, the fact they managed to monitor and check their project from an immersive perspective also helped them in finding better design solutions. To conclude, this experience has initiated future investigations on the use of visualization technologies as a real teaching tool, both useful to educate and amuse students.

Keywords:

Distance learning, BIM, VR, advanced didactics, avatars, virtual space.