Virtual Learning Environments to Enhance Spatial Orientation

Abstract

The spatial orientation skill allows us to determine our location in relation to the environment. It can be developed through specific training, and is a competence to be acquired in STEM university degrees related to geospatial information. In addition to map reading, an activity that provides the spatial orientation skill is wayfinding. While wayfinding the information obtained from successive views of the environment provides spatial orientation. This research presents an immersive orientation experiment, in which an urban environment is displayed through a Smartphone installed in VR 3D glasses. The motion direction is controlled with a joystick. In the experiment 32-second year engineering students from La Laguna University participated, and the average gain in spatial orientation skill was of 12.81º, measured with the Perspective Taking Spatial Orientation Test. No gender differences detected. This gain is less than that obtained in previous experiments with GISc, Geoportals and Augmented Reality resources.