Virtual field trip for mobile construction safety education using 360-degree panoramic virtual reality

Abstract

Constructionsafety education plays a vital rolein equipping studentswithconcrete safety knowledge and promoting safetyperformance prior to entering construction sites. However, safety topics are not given adequate attention in mostconstruction curricula and traditional pedagogic tools fail to provide practical experience or sufficiently engage students inacquiring safety knowledge. With this regard, this study proposes the VIrtual FIeld Trip System (VIFITS) for mobileconstruction safety education using a 360-degree panoramic virtual reality. The VIFITS utilizes a state-of-the-art 360-degree panorama-based Virtual Reality technology in order to bring construction field trips to the classroom and providepractical experience to improve students’ safety knowledge. VIFITS consists of three modules: (1) a Safety InformationDissemination module (SID) in which the educator disseminates safety information to the students through mobilelearning; (2) a Virtual Field Trip Experience module (FTE) where students experience virtual construction field trips basedon their own mobile devices; (3) and a Safety Knowledge Assessment module (SKA) designed for learners to play testingsimulation games in order to assess their safety knowledge. The VIFITS prototype is developed and validated with virtualscenarios derived from real construction sites. The results reveal that the VIFITS is a powerful pedagogical method foreffectively providing practical experience and safety knowledge for students.

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