OnSite: The Virtual Site Visit as an Environment for Construction Learning

Methodolgy

Two questions emerge from this situation: How does an educator meaningfully address the structural requirements of ‘seeing’ the reality of domestic construction processes, and; what alternatives exist for this experience if a physical site visit is not feasible? It was the opinion of the authors that developments within Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) in education would provide a model for simulated experience that successfully managed the manifold challenges of ‘real life’ learning while also allowing for focussed pedagogical aims that successfully measured the effectiveness of the process. While literature on the subjects of VLEs, gamification, constructivist learning and LMS strategies is currently broad (Zheng, 2015), there is currently little substantive analysis of projects that attempt to syncretically incorporate the full range of capabilities within the digital education space for architecture and construction. Maghool, Moeini and Arefazar, have identified and summarized the relationship between learning styles within architectural education and the potential implementation of VLEs (Maghool et al, 2018). Their LADUVR project addressed similar concerns as those that have premised OnSite, but there are significant differences that OnSite addresses, in particular those relevant to site visits and to the parallel incorporation of LMSs. Projects tend to concentrate upon the employment of gamification methodologies at the expense of visual authenticity, rehearsing a philosophical question that exists within digital game theory of the difference between ludological (instrumental play behavior) versus narrative (immersiveness) approaches. Our challenge was to combine the incorporation of complex software uptake as a condition of learning; the creation of VLEs that demonstrate visual authenticity by employing contemporary game engines; integration between VLEs and learning management systems (LMS); and the application of this material to large data sets (in excess of 30 participants). The work of Maghool, Moeini and Arefazar is clearly a front-runner in the development of a complex and integrated approach to the creation of meaningful and authentic emulation of the construction process, however in our view much of the literature in this field does not attempt to create a fully integrated approach. This was the aim of the OnSite project. To progress this aim, a number of questions had to formulated and an appropriate methodology be developed.