Learning effectiveness of virtual environments for 3D terrain interpretation and data acquisition

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The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of different learning strategies for 3D terrain interpretation and data acquisition by engineering students. According to the experimental design, students received homogeneous training, followed by differential training, which divided the students into three statistically homogeneous groups where each group was subject to a different learning process: (1) virtual environment learning; (2) learning using physical scale models; and (3) a theoretical class. Afterwards, the students were evaluated using two tests under real field conditions. Results were obtained for the following study variables: field-test scores and whether or not the student was repeating the course. The students who learned using physical scale models obtained the best scores; their scores were significantly higher than those of students using virtual environment or a theoretical class. These findings open up new perspectives on the teaching of surveying with respect to other teaching methods.