Abstract
Education 4.0 demands a flexible combination of digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving in educational settings linked to real-world scenarios. Haptic technology incorporates the sense of touch into a visual simulator to enrich the user’s sensory experience, thus supporting a meaningful learning process. After developing several visuo-haptic simulators, our team identified serious difficulties and important challenges to achieve successful learning environments within the framework of Education 4.0. This paper presents the VIS-HAPT methodology for developing realistic visuo-haptic scenarios to promote the learning of science and physics concepts for engineering students. This methodology consists of four stages that integrate different aspects and processes leading to meaningful learning experiences for students. The different processes that must be carried out through the different stages, the difficulties to overcome and recommendations on how to face them are all described herein. The results are encouraging since a significant decrease (of approximately 40%) in the development and implementation times was obtained as compared with previous efforts. The quality of the visuo-haptic environments was also enhanced. Student perceptions of the benefits of using visuo-haptic simulators to enhance their understanding of physics concepts also improved after using the proposed methodology. The incorporation of haptic technologies in higher education settings will certainly foster better student performance in subsequent real environments related to Industry 4.0.
Highlights
A pre-test and posttest were applied to a student sample before and after working with the simulators, respectively, and statistically significant average learning gains were obtained for the comprehension of the force dependence in the case of the line charge and plane charge visuohaptic environments
The time dedicated in this phase includes: (a) the number of sessions and hours spent on selecting each educational scenario; (b) the time needed to design the contextualized physical phenomenon; (c) the time spent on the design of the visualization elements; and (d) the time invested in deriving the physical model needed to build the visuo-haptic environment; Definition of the technological model
The reported times for phases 1 and 4 were estimated using the hours registered in our session logs, considering the number of sessions held by our team working on task, as well as through the different moments needed to carry out the field studies of the visuo-haptic application with the students
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Haptic feedback (from the Greek haptesthai, meaning “contact” or “touch”), incorporates the tactile sense in a virtual world, which is the most sophisticated of all our senses, allowing the users to perceive different sensations such as pressure, texture, hardness, weight, and the form of virtual objects in a visuo-haptic simulator [7] In this sense, the use of visuo-haptic environments, in which haptic technology is combined with virtual learning environments (e.g., [6]), allows the student’s brain to receive stimuli from different channels, enhancing a better acquisition of concepts during the learning process [8], and promoting the development of critical competencies that will prepare them to more efficiently respond in future scenarios.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
