Students’ design of Seamless learning scenarios using Virtual worlds and 3D-models in archaeology

Education in domains such as archaeology, that are inherently about understanding and interpretation of (past and present) contexts, can potentially benefit from applying virtual reality (VR). To explore students’ perspectives on learning scenarios using VR and 3D models, we organised participatory design sessions with students. 21 students participated in group participative design activities. Students followed introductions on potential learning affordances of virtual reality technology (including 3D models) and the seamless learning design paradigm. They explored existing VR environments and 3D models in hands-on sessions. Students were also provided with design constraint ‘vignettes’ on authentic university courses with educational problems that needed to be solved. Based on this input, students (re)designed learning scenarios. Analysis of these learning scenarios shows that students were capable of (re-)designing learning scenarios that implemented virtual reality, addressing educational issues in existing courses. Moreover, the analysis indicated that students understood the seamless learning design paradigm quite well, as they implemented at least 6 of the 10 seamless learning dimensions. All scenarios covered the seamless learning dimensions of learning across time and place, formal vs informal learning, individual and group learning, knowledge synthesis and applying multiple pedagogical models.