Investigation of the effectiveness of using digital twin and VR as learning materials for beginners of civil engineering structures

Abstract

A Virtual Reality (VR) educational material was developed for beginners in civil engineering. This educational material has three main objectives. First, by using familiar civil engineering structures as learning content, users can become familiar with the names of structures in their environment. Second, through multi-perspective observation enabled by 3D capture technology, learners can examine structures in more detail. Thirdly, by incorporating VR and 3D Gaussian splatting, the material allows learners to experience state-of-the-art technologies. In addition, 15 students of National Institute of Technology, Gunma Collage were asked to use this educational material, and a questionnaire survey was conducted. As a result, more than 86.6% of the respondents answered “agree” or “somewhat agree” to “the usefulness of using 3D models,” “the usefulness of using VR,” and “the usefulness of using the familiar environment as a target”. The results of the questionnaire survey on the level of understanding of civil engineering structures showed that the cumulative response rate of “can answer” and “probably can answer” for each name was over 80%, suggesting that the teaching materials developed this time have a certain learning effect.