AGENT-BASED VIRTUAL REALITY (AVR) IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MATH EDUCATION

Abstract

One of the significant issues in STEM educationtoday is how to integrate 3-D Virtual Reality worlds (3DVR)into the classroom. While 3DVR has allowed us to addversatility, it has also created a new set of problems.Distance education students do feel more social connectionwhen 3DVR is implemented. However, students are failing tolearn the class content material well in these environments.We are currently testing the Agent-based Virtual Reality(AVR) system. This system has significant advantages overother 3DVR. The AVR system is easy to deploy, can recordlectures synchronously or asynchronously, and does notrequire faculty or students to create and operate their ownavatars unless they wish to do so. This allows students andfaculty to focus on the content material more fully byremoving distractions in the environment. The AVR systemoperates on low bandwidth frequencies to reach rural anddisadvantaged populations.Index Terms ⎯ 3-D virtual reality, online education,