A Virtual Reality Laboratory for Blended Learning Education: Design, Implementation and Evaluation

Abstract

Launched during the pandemic, the EU-funded JANUS project aimed to ensure the continuity of student workshops at universities using a virtual reality (VR) robotics laboratory. With the return to normality, the project has been redesigned to capitalise on the positive outcomes of the experience. The VR lab provides safe and unrestricted access to the labs and experiments with the machines, reducing the consequences of student mistakes and improving the user experience by allowing the experiment to be repeated from different angles, some of which are impossible to access in the real lab. In addition, integration with an interactive learning platform called “ViLLE” allows for continuous assessment of the learning experience. Self-evaluation of the material taught and learned can be integrated with the execution of the exercises that pave the way for Kaizen. Two VR workshops for the blended learning of robotics were developed during the JANUS project. Their evaluation reported favourable responses from the students whose learning performance was indirectly measured.

How to Maintain Sustainable Research Productivity: From Talents Mobility Perspective

“…The traveling scholars' return to their home countries helps to improve the future research and innovation capabilities of developing countries [2]. Within this context, many countries have taken active measures to send their scholars abroad or cross-regionally and to attract overseas scholars to return by implementing various talent policies, plans, and systems, such as the Erasmus+ program of the European Union, the Spanish "Ramón y Cajal" program, and the JANUS project [3]. Such programs can bring the intellectual capital and international cooperation network of researchers back into the scholar's home country so that, on the one hand, "brain circulation" can be carried out to improve the level of scientific research and innovation in the country; on the other hand, "ties circulation" can be achieved to strengthen international knowledge exchange and cooperation [4].…”