EXPERIENCES OF INCORPORATING VIRTUAL REALITY AT THE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING OF THE CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF CHILE

This proposal will present the implementation of a technology that has become a key to the development of modern engineering worldwide: Immersive Virtual Reality, which allows future professionals of the careers involved to relate to cutting-edge technology that will be of conventional use in the short term. This activity has been carried out between 2018 and 2019. The year 2018 with 119 participating students and 49 direct users of the "Oculus Rift Touch" system. The implementation activity of Immersive Virtual Reality, for the year 2019, is associated with two transversal courses of the careers of Engineers College or School of Engineering: Calculation I and Electricity and Magnetism, with a total universe of 430 students. The implementation of this technology - in 2018 - was developed based on an activity previously defined by the Academic team and associated with two courses: "Computer Graphic Drawing" and "Building I" of the different careers of the School of Engineering. In both cases, a project was reviewed via printed planimetries and immersive Virtual Reality, and then conducted a series of surveys that allowed students to determine the accuracy and perception. The main results of the experience were related to the recognition of the level of precision according to the bibliography (the larger the project, the greater the incidence of recognition of its geometric features will be on the Immersive Virtual Reality), therefore for all cases studied, Virtual Reality delivered more precise results in the understanding of a three-dimensional model. Then - the experience in development this year 2019 - is related to the creation of a Virtual Library in which the student can enter - from anywhere in the world - select a particular subject and review a digital capsule with a specific content, allowing complementing the learned in their traditional classes. The capsules will be made with 2 combined formats: 360 degrees video and built-in three-dimensional elements, in order to generate a recording - with the participation of a teacher, narrating the class, and including previously modelled three-dimensional elements that contribute to the understanding of the case being studied. The content associated with the capsule of the Calculation I course will be the quadratic function. In Electricity and Magnetism: electric field. Students can see these capsules from the University or their home, based on low-cost systems - and with a lower degree of immersion - such as the so-called "Cardboard" that uses the computing power of current mobile phones. The project has been defined in three main phases associated with the design and technological execution, preparation of academic elements and, finally, the implementation and measurement of results. Unfortunately, due to the events of the social movement that occurred in Chile in October 2019, the final phase of implementation could not be carried out. Therefore, this proposal aims, is to expose both experiences and their results, in order to disseminate the characteristics of incorporating Virtual Reality in the education of the Engineering area, based on experiences associated with the three-dimensional understanding of a project - in the year 2018 -and of learning Basic Sciences in an analogous versus digital way - in the year 2019 -.