The geothermal world videogame: An authentic, immersive videogame used to teach observation skills needed for exploration

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dc.contributor.authorDohaney, J.
dc.contributor.authorKennedy, B.
dc.contributor.authorBrogt, E.
dc.contributor.authorBradshaw, H.
dc.date.accessioned2014-04-14T04:05:31Z
dc.date.available2014-04-14T04:05:31Z
dc.date.issued2012en
dc.description.abstractInterviews with geothermal professionals have identified geothermal concepts (i.e. knowledge) and skill sets that entry-level geologists commonly lack when beginning a career in the geothermal energy sector. To help address these issues, an authentic and immersive 3D free-roaming videogame called ‘The GeoThermal World’ was designed and piloted in 2012 at the University of Canterbury to teach undergraduate students about geothermal fieldwork and resource exploration. An experiment was carried out to compare students’ learning experiences in a real fieldwork activity at Orakei Korako to learning experiences in the virtual setting of the videogame. Both settings were designed with the same outcomes in mind: to provide the students with a level of background knowledge and operating procedures to do basic geothermal fieldwork. Several datasets were collected to characterize the students learning and to allow us to compare their overall experiences and perceptions of the tasks in different settings. In both activities, we aimed to teach the students how to observe, characterize and record geologic information at a hot spring. Preliminary results indicate that both settings are successful at teaching geothermal concepts with some strengths and weaknesses identified in both. However, the settings seem to be complementary to one another. Hence, ideally, field teaching experiences as a part of the undergraduate geology curriculum could be supplemented by digital or virtual experiences. This may cut down on the time required to ‘skill-up’ new entry-level geologists who may be lacking geothermal-specific field knowledge and skills. Further development of ‘The GeoThermal World’ will allow us to refine the authenticity and create more complex virtual geothermal settings and challenges.en
dc.identifier.citationDohaney, J., Kennedy, B., Brogt, E., Bradshaw, H. (2012) The geothermal world videogame: An authentic, immersive videogame used to teach observation skills needed for exploration. Auckland, New Zealand: 34th New Zealand Geothermal Workshop (NZGW), 19-21 Nov 2012.en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10092/9082
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherUniversity of Canterbury. Geological Sciencesen
dc.publisherUniversity of Canterbury. AVC Research Officeen
dc.rights.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10092/17651en
dc.subjecteducationen
dc.subjectlearningen
dc.subjectgeothermal geologyen
dc.subjectvideogameen
dc.subjectfield worken
dc.subjectobservation skillsen
dc.subjectlearning gainsen
dc.subject.anzsrcFields of Research::37 - Earth sciences::3705 - Geology::370599 - Geology not elsewhere classifieden
dc.subject.anzsrcField of Research::08 - Information and Computing Sciences::0801 - Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing::080111 - Virtual Reality and Related Simulationen
dc.subject.anzsrcField of Research::13 - Education::1302 - Curriculum and Pedagogy::130212 - Science, Technology and Engineering Curriculum and Pedagogyen
dc.subject.anzsrcFields of Research::37 - Earth sciences::3706 - Geophysics::370605 - Geothermics and radiometricsen
dc.titleThe geothermal world videogame: An authentic, immersive videogame used to teach observation skills needed for explorationen
dc.typeConference Contributions - Published
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