A scenario for collaborative learning in virtual engineering laboratories

The feasibility of developing interactive collaborative virtual environments for undergraduate student laboratory experiments is currently being explored at various institutions. Such environments can be implemented using commercial multiplayer game engines together with the associated software development kits. Such immersive environments are expected to provide students with an opportunity for exercising their problem solving skills by collaboratively interacting with each other and the virtual laboratory exercises. This paper discusses the requirements for designing game-based virtual laboratory environments from pedagogical as well as technical point of view. Also, the practical implementation of these design requirements in a prototype system is discussed and a sample scenario for a virtual laboratory based on an existing laboratory exercise from a junior-level mechanical engineering course on mechanisms and machine dynamics is presented. The described virtual laboratory environment represents an attempt to mimic important aspects of the learning experience gained through conventional hands-on experiments and even augment this experience by certain features that are not achievable in the traditional hands-on laboratory setting.