Collaborative Virtual Reality for Surveying 
		Education  
		Dimitrios BOLKAS, Matthew O’BANION, Jeffrey CHIAMPI, 
		and Jordan LAUGHLIN, USA
			 
				
					|  |  |  |  | 
				
					| Dimitrios Bolkas | Matthew O'Banion | Jeffrey Chiampi | Jordan Laughlin | 
			
		
		
			
			This article in .pdf-format 
			(15 pages)
		This article is a peer-reviewed paper published and presented at the FIG Working 
		Week 2023 in Orlando, Florida. This paper presents virtual reality 
		implementations following two different pedagogical frameworks, the 
		first assessment results of collaborative learning and evaluate the role 
		of collaborative virtual reality to enhance student learning and support 
		surveying education. 
		Key words: virtual reality, surveying education, collaborative 
		learning, teamwork 
		SUMMARY 
		Immersive technologies have experienced rapid advancement in recent 
		years, and they have experienced widespread dissemination and 
		implementation in several disciplines including engineering. These 
		virtual reality implementations demonstrate a capability to support 
		education. However, implementations often lack connections with 
		theoretical pedagogical structures, leading to suboptimal results. This 
		paper presents virtual reality implementations following two different 
		pedagogical frameworks, namely experiential learning and situated 
		cognition / collaborative learning. In the former case students engage 
		in a virtual experience and learn by doing, while in the latter students 
		learn through communication and deriving solutions as a team. It is 
		widely accepted that teamwork and collaboration are increasingly 
		important skills in engineering. This paper demonstrates an example of 
		virtual reality labs in surveying engineering that follow a situated 
		cognition framework. The situated cognition labs are compared with 
		virtual reality labs that follow an experiential learning approach. The 
		paper presents the first assessment results of collaborative learning 
		and evaluate the role of collaborative virtual reality to enhance 
		student learning and support surveying education.
		1. Introduction
		Immersive technologies typically include Augmented Reality (AR), 
		Mixed Reality (MR), and Virtual Reality (VR). Immersive technologies 
		have experienced rapid advancement and development in the past decade, 
		with uses in the surveying profession and surveying education. In the 
		surveying profession it is worth highlighting Trimble SiteVision 
		(Trimble 2022) and the Leica vGIS (Leica-Geosystems 2022). These are AR 
		systems that allow accurate visualization of 3D models in the real 
		world, integrating 3D models with data collected in real time. Although, 
		this is an AR example, it shows how the industry is starting to utilize 
		immersive technologies. Virtual Reality, and immersive technologies in 
		general, have found more applications in education and training. Thanks 
		to their rapid advancement, we can find application examples in several 
		disciplines ranging from engineering, medicine and surgery, social 
		sciences, liberal arts, and more (examples of recent cases can be found 
		in: Chheang et al. 2021; Hur et al. 2021; Ma 2021; Singh et a. 2021). In 
		recent years, we also note several remarkable examples in surveying 
		education. For instance, O’Banion et al. (2020) used immersive 
		visualization to demonstrate the process of data acquisition from 
		airborne laser scanning. In Levin et al. (2020) students used a virtual 
		total station to collect topographic data to generate contours. Bolkas 
		et al. (2022) have developed software that allows students to collect 
		differential leveling data in an immersive and interactive VR. In Sakib 
		et al. (2020) an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) virtual training software 
		was developed to assist student preparedness with flying a UAV. We 
		notice that VR in surveying education is being used to prepare students 
		for hands-on labs, connect practical and theoretical concepts, develop 
		specific skills, and provide experiences that cannot be completed in the 
		real world due to cost, access, or liability limitations. 
		Virtual reality implementation should relate to an appropriate 
		theoretical framework and educators should have a solid rationale for 
		the use of VR and integration in existing curriculum (Johnston et al. 
		2018). Many of the existing VR implementations are often focused on 
		assessment of longstanding objectives not tailored to VR and 
		unfortunately the pedagogical structures are not clearly addressed 
		(Vincent et al. 2008; Solak and Erdem 2015; Johnston et al. 2018). The 
		lack of a robust link between VR application and pedagogical principles 
		and concepts leads to suboptimal implementations of VR in education 
		(Psotka 2013; Johnston et al. 2018). The pedagogical foundations that 
		are often found in VR, discussed in this paper, are derived by Kebritchi 
		and Hirumi (2008) and used in Johnston et al. (2018). These are briefly 
		described as follows: 
		
			- Direct instruction: students acquire skills through tutorials, 
			presentation of information, repetitive instructions, drill, and 
			practice;
- Experiential learning: students engage in real-life or virtual 
			experience; students observe, think, do and conceptualize and 
			experiment, learn by doing; 
- Discovery learning: students build on existing knowledge to 
			learn new concepts through discovery, inquiry, applying 
			problem-solving and decision-making; 
- Situated cognition: students are observers and actors, follow 
			others, engage in social interaction and communications to learn, 
			derive solutions as a team to problems; and, 
- Constructivism: closely related to experiential and discovery 
			learning; knowledge is built by the learner, students gain knowledge 
			by making sense of experiences, students act, experiment, and 
			reflect within the experiences.
Of the above pedagogical foundations, experiential learning is often 
		cited in VR studies, and is the primary role in VR implementations. VR 
		opens the door to experience environments that are difficult to access, 
		dangerous, socially or culturally unacceptable, and/or very expensive 
		(Fowler 2015; Johnston et al. 2018). For this reason, Johnston et al. 
		(2018) also make note of secondary pedagogical foundations with their 
		analysis showing that discovery learning and constructivism appear as a 
		secondary role in most applications. This result is related to the 
		nature of role-play gaming where the gamer explores the environment and 
		discovers artifacts, clues, and information required to continue to the 
		next level or mission. Of particular note, there are few studies that 
		use situated cognition and collaborative learning as pedagogical 
		approach (Johnston et al. 2018). The same observation is found in 
		Potkonjak et al. (2016), who also analyzed many implementations of VR in 
		engineering education despite the implementations being desktop based 
		and not immersive. Many immersive VR implementations that utilize 
		situated cognition are from the military realm where soldiers are 
		trained as a team to respond in various threat situations (e.g., Bink et 
		al. 2015).
		In situated cognition, knowledge is embedded in its context, 
		activity, and culture within which it is developed and used for learning 
		(Brown et al. 1989; Kebritchi and Hirumi 2008). The social interactions 
		and communications with others are fundamental to achieve learning 
		(Brown et al. 1989; Kebritchi and Hirumi 2008). Therefore, learners are 
		not isolated (as they are in many VR implementations); rather, they 
		learn while interacting with other students within shared activities 
		that are designed to facilitate communication, discussion, 
		problem-solving, transfer of knowledge, and skills (Aydede and Robbins 
		2009). Situated cognition is based on social development theory where 
		social interactions are the main method for developing cognition 
		(Vygotsky 1978). The activity used as means for learning is also an 
		important component of the theory of situated cognition, as activities 
		must be authentic and framed by the domain’s (or profession’s) culture 
		and ordinary practices (Brown et al. 1989). Concepts such as teamwork, 
		engaging in technical and diverse discussion, learning from peers and/or 
		instructors, and collaborative learning are integral to engineering and 
		essential aspects of Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology 
		(ABET) accreditation for many surveying / geomatics programs. 
		Collaborative learning is an integral aspect of situated cognition, and 
		it can be achieved by designing activities and labs that have situated 
		cognition as their primary pedagogical focus.
		Situated cognition provides the means for context-based collaborative 
		learning, transferring of knowledge and skills between learners, and 
		simulates real-world learning settings. Immersive technologies become 
		the “next big thing” and an important tool for many engineering 
		disciplines (Piroozfar et al. 2018); therefore, integrating such 
		technologies in the surveying curriculum is vital for preparing future 
		surveyors. This paper demonstrates an example of situated cognition 
		implemented through VR surveying engineering labs. The VR labs are 
		designed under the situated cognition framework, and compared with VR 
		labs that follow an experiential learning approach. The main research 
		question is: can situated cognition support and assist learning of 
		surveying engineering principles in activities that are designed in 
		immersive and interactive VR? The paper presents the first assessment 
		results of situated cognition / collaborative learning and evaluates the 
		role of collaborative VR to enhance student learning and support 
		surveying education. 
		2.     VIRTUAL REALITY LABS 
		The VR labs that were used in this paper were on differential 
		leveling and using the Surveying Reality (SurReal) software that was 
		presented in Bolkas et al. (2021). The software simulates differential 
		leveling in immersive and interactive VR. It was expanded to include 
		GNSS labs, and, in the future, is expected to support exercises that 
		utilize a total station instrument. The software uses the Oculus Rift 
		for controls and for the head mounted display (HMD), and it can also use 
		similar Oculus devices that can connect to a desktop computer such as 
		the Oculus Quest. The software and instrument handles were developed in 
		Unity, while several of the 3D models and buildings were developed in 
		Autodesk 3DS Max and Blender (see Bolkas et al. 2020; Bolkas et al. 
		2021). Students can grab and move the differential level instrument, 
		level it by adjusting the legs and tribrach screws, and make 
		measurements and record them in a virtual fieldbook (Bolkas et al. 2021; 
		Bolkas et al. 2022). The lab is based on a three-benchmark leveling loop 
		(Figure 1), where for each setup we increase the level of difficulty to 
		challenge the student (Bolkas et al. 2022). 
		Figure 2 shows a side of the benchmark locations. In the first 
		segment (BM1 to BM2), there is no real challenge, as we want to give 
		time to the student to get familiar with the software and the VR 
		controls. In the second segment (BM2 to BM3), there is a road sign next 
		to BM2, which can block the line of sight; therefore, the student needs 
		to select a suitable instrument location. In the third segment (BM3 to 
		BM1), we have added a car as an obstacle, there is high terrain 
		variability, and tree branches can block the view. If the student does 
		not select an appropriate location to setup the instrument, then the 
		student will either aim to low at BM1 or the view to BM3 will be blocked 
		by trees. 
		
		
		Figure 1. Virtual environment and virtual lab. The figure shows the 
		benchmark (BM) locations and example instrument setups. 
		
		
		Figure 2. Ground level perspective view of the benchmark locations in 
		the three-benchmark leveling loop. 
		2.1 Experiential learning approach
		 In the experiential learning approach, the students complete the virtual 
		lab on their own, meaning that they are the only surveyor in their 
		specific virtual lab. The focus of the virtual experience is to prepare 
		students for the physical lab by allowing the students to learn by 
		doing. Prior to the virtual lab, the students receive theoretical 
		instruction on differential leveling through traditional means i.e., 
		class demonstrations and presentations. In the virtual experience, the 
		instructor demonstrates the main controls and the process of completing 
		a differential leveling loop in VR. Students then conduct the lab in VR 
		on their own, handling both the differential level instrument and the 
		leveling rod. This approach has the advantage of exposing the student to 
		both the instrument and rod roles, giving them a complete understanding 
		of the differential leveling process. Therefore, in the experiential 
		learning approach students engage in the virtual experience, and in 
		general learn by doing. In addition to the experiential learning, the 
		virtual lab also has elements of discovery learning, as students build 
		knowledge by problem solving, decision making, inquiry, and trial and 
		error. For instance, consider the student making decisions about the 
		optimal position of the differential level considering terrain and line 
		of sight constraints. At the end of the experience, students receive a 
		report of their observations along with the true observations generated 
		by the software. This introduces elements of constructivism, as students 
		can identify their mistake and make sense of their experience and 
		decisions. 
		 
		
		 Figure 4. Flowchart of the experiential learning and the situated 
		cognition implementation approaches 
		 2.2 Situated Cognition / Collaborative Learning 
		
		 For the situated cognition approach, the focus of the lab is to use 
		collaboration, communication, and interaction to learn and derive 
		solutions as a team. The group of students that completed the 
		collaborative virtual lab followed the same surveying process as the 
		individual student group; however, two students were able to co-exist in 
		the same virtual environment and work together. For each team of two, 
		one student assumed a leadership role and operated the leveling 
		telescope instrument, while the other took a follower role and handled 
		the leveling rod (Figure 5). Instructions about the leader-follower 
		roles were emphasized before conducting the virtual lab. Participants 
		were able switch roles at any point throughout the virtual exercise and 
		were encouraged to do so following each instrument setup. Following 
		their collaborative completion of the differential leveling loop, each 
		team was able to review the exercise performance report where they can 
		identify any mistakes made and discuss possible mitigation strategies. 
		As mentioned above, the focus of the virtual exercise is for students to 
		learn through collaboration, communication, and interaction; however, it 
		is important to highlight that the exercise still maintains elements of 
		experiential learning, discovery learning, and constructivism. A 
		disadvantage of this method is that the students experience only one 
		role if they do not switch; however, this can take place in the 
		real-world as well. To counter this in the virtual world, a forced role 
		change could be implemented.
		 
		
		 Figure 5. Students collaboratively complete a virtual lab in SurReal. 
		The student in the background is handling the differential level 
		instrument, while the student in the foreground is handling the leveling 
		rod. 
		 2.3 Student Sample and Assessment 
		 The two experiential and situated cognition labs were implemented at 
		Penn State Wilkes-Barre in an introductory surveying course in Fall of 
		2021. In addition, the experiential learning labs were implemented at 
		the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York. The 
		situated cognition labs were not operational at the time of the USMA 
		trials due to a technical issue with the multiplayer SDK of the 
		software. Therefore, the focus is placed on the Penn State Wilkes-Barre 
		sample. There were 14 students in SUR 111, the introductory surveying 
		course at Penn State Wilkes-Barre, in Fall of 2021. Of those students, 8 
		were randomly selected to complete the virtual leveling lab in the 
		situated cognition framework; thus, forming 4 groups of 2 students. The 
		remaining 6 students completed the virtual leveling lab in the 
		experiential learning framework. 
		 To assess the two learning approaches, students completed pre- and 
		post-tests. The pre-test had questions related to trigonometry such as 
		calculating angles and distances in a right triangle using the sine, 
		cosine, and tangent formulas, using the law of cosines, and the 
		Pythagorean Theorem. The post-test, was a midterm exam, and we focus on 
		a question that asked students to prepare a set of leveling notes, 
		calculate the page check, and calculate the adjusted elevation for one 
		BM. The leveling line had three leveling setups with three backsight and 
		three foresight measurements. In addition to the post-test, we use the 
		student performance during two physical leveling labs at Penn State 
		Wilkes-Barre that followed the virtual lab. 
		 Assessment using pre- and post-tests may not be the most suitable 
		measure to show learning differences and differences related to teamwork 
		and collaboration. Therefore, we augment our assessment with 
		student-to-student evaluations about their collaboration. This 
		evaluation is concentrated around a three-question survey where students 
		were asked to rate their partners with scores ranging from 1 to 5: 
		
			- Demonstrates good and 
		encourages communication among teammates; 
- Demonstrates 
		participation in decision making; 
- Demonstrates active 
		team member participation in assigned-role duties. 
 
 Furthermore, after the students completed the situated cognition virtual 
		lab they answered the following questions, again providing scores 
		ranging from 1 to 5: 
		
			- I liked the ability to 
		communicate in the VR lab; 
- Rate the communication 
		quality; 
- Rate the collaboration 
		with your partner; 
- Working in a group 
		helped me learn; 
- Working in a group in 
		VR was enjoyable. 
 
 3.     RESULTS
		  3.1 Student Background
		 Table 1 provides information about the background of students with 
		respect to surveying and VR. Almost all students in both samples have no 
		prior experience with surveying and the differential leveling process. 
		In terms of their experience with VR, 4 students in the situated 
		cognition and 2 students in the experiential learning samples had used 
		VR before. However, their experience was very minimal, and they 
		indicated that they had used VR only a few times as part of a course or 
		for gaming purposes. Both samples can be considered as non-experienced 
		with both surveying and VR. This is important and worth highlighting 
		because it makes the process of learning using immersive technologies 
		challenging. Students have to learn VR and then be able to conduct the 
		virtual lab; therefore, sometimes their ability to learn how to use VR 
		can affect their learning and progress in the virtual lab. Compared to 
		previous years, we find that an increased number of students have had 
		some exposure to immersive visualization technologies, which is 
		encouraging for future virtual lab implementations, as students may come 
		more prepared to use this technology and be able to focus on the virtual 
		task / lab. 
		 Table 1. Sample background and experience with surveying and VR 
		 
		
		 3.2 Virtual Leveling Lab Results 
		 First, we evaluate the virtual leveling lab results in terms of their 
		misclosure and ability to balance the backsight and foresight distances 
		(Table 2). Of the 4 groups in the collaborative student sample, two 
		achieved a misclosure of 5 mm or less. While two groups had higher 
		misclosures at the level of a few decimeters. For the one group, this 
		was due to a blunder measurement. For the other group, it was because 
		one student forgot to level the instrument in one setup.  In 
		contrast of the six students conducting the lab on their own, two 
		students achieved a misclosure of less than 3 mm, two students achieved 
		a misclosure of 2-4 cm, and two students did not finish the lap. The 
		moderate accuracy (2-4 cm) of the two students was due to poor leveling 
		of the instrument. The two students that did not finish the lab was 
		because they exceeded the time allowed (i.e., more than 60 minutes). We 
		notice that the situated cognition group needed less time to complete 
		the labs than the experiential learning group. In the situated cognition 
		group the tasks are shared; however, in the experiential learning lab 
		students need to level the instrument and then the rod, thus needing 
		more time to complete the lab. Of note is that several students of the 
		experiential learning group did not follow the suggested format for 
		recording measurements, which is not the case for the situated cognition 
		student sample. It was observed that the situated cognition students 
		communicated on how to set up the fieldbook, record the measurements and 
		therefore, followed the suggested format. Some students in the 
		experiential learning sample who did not know how to properly record 
		their measurements hesitated to ask the instructor for assistance and 
		ended up with incorrect fieldbook formats. After the virtual lab, the 
		instructor showed the report to the students, and discussed the mistakes 
		and how to improve their surveying in the future. In the physical lab 
		(introduction to leveling), where students complete a three-benchmark 
		loop similar to the virtual lab, all groups achieved the required 
		misclosure in their first attempt, and all groups followed the correct 
		fieldbook format. This demonstrates the ability of both VR approaches to 
		prepare students for the physical lab. 
		 Table 2. Virtual lab statistics. There are 6 students in the 
		experiential learning lab and 4 groups (8 students) in the situated 
		cognition lab. 
		 
		
		 Table 3. Student feedback related to general pedagogy and surveying 
		pedagogy questions. Average scores are shown (Scores range 1 to 5).
		 
		
		 
		 Table 4. Student feedback of the situated cognition virtual lab related 
		to their ability to work in a group and communicate in VR.  Average 
		scores are shown (Scores range 1 to 5).
		 
		
		 Table 3 shows the student feedback related to the pedagogical 
		contributions of VR. Both groups provided similar feedback and they 
		indicate that VR helped students learn, improve their learning 
		experience, understand surveying techniques, and helped them prepare for 
		the physical labs. Furthermore, the student group who conducted the 
		situated cognition labs expressed their strongly positive feedback for 
		the ability to work in groups in VR, and that working in a group it 
		helped them learn (Table 4).
		 3.3 Pre-test and Post-test Assessment and Peer-to-Peer Evaluation 
		
		 The average pre-test grade for the experiential learning and situated 
		cognition groups were 43.1% and 46.0%, respectively for the two groups. 
		Statistically they are not significantly different, as the t-value is 
		-0.197; the p-value is 0.848; therefore, the result is not significant 
		at p <0.05. This indicates that there is no inherent bias between the 
		test and control groups. The scores of the post-test question were 88.9% 
		and 88.1%, for the experiential learning and situated cognition groups 
		respectively. The post-test question was given as part of the class 
		midterm exam. The overall grades of the midterm exam, which contained 
		leveling and other non-leveling questions, were very similar as well 
		i.e., 90.4% and 88.9%, respectively. The scores of the introduction to 
		leveling lab, where students complete a three-benchmark loop similar to 
		the virtual lab, were 92.5% and 95.0%, respectively. While for the 
		second differential leveling lab, which is a leveling circuit starting 
		from one benchmark and ending at a different benchmark, the scores were 
		95.0% and 95.6%, respectively. A notable difference was found with 
		respect to the peer-to-peer evaluations. Table 5 shows the average 
		scores for three questions asked in each group. We notice higher scores 
		for the situated cognition group. Q1 and Q3 yield statistically 
		significant differences; therefore, indicating a positive effect of the 
		situated cognition labs in student collaboration. 
		 Table 5. Peer-to-peer student evaluations related to their teamwork and 
		collaboration in the physical lab.
		 
		
		 3.4 Comparison with Previous Years 
		 In Table 6, we show a comparison of average grades for the midterm exam, 
		which contains several leveling questions, and two outdoor differential 
		leveling labs. Years 2019 and 2021 are years where students conducted VR 
		labs. In 2019 all students conducted the experiential learning lab, and 
		in 2021 6 students conducted the experiential learning lab and 8 
		students the situated cognition lab. Some years are missing student 
		grades due to instructor turnover. In general, we note the positive 
		effect in student grades when VR is used. The three-benchmark loop lab, 
		which is conducted a week after the virtual lab, seems to have the most 
		benefit of the virtual labs. Students are better prepared for the 
		physical lab; having conducted a very similar virtual lab first. 
		 Table 6. Average grades in related exams and assignments. 2019 and 2021 
		are the years where VR technology was used. In 2019 an experiential 
		learning approach was used. In 2021 students were separated into an 
		experiential learning and a situated cognition group.
		 
		
		 The results of this paper demonstrate that both experiential learning 
		and situated cognition / collaborative learning approaches are suitable 
		for preparing students for physical labs. In both approaches the lab and 
		exam scores were higher compared to the years without VR, indicating 
		that both methods can be used to enhance learning. The main difference 
		between the two virtual learning approaches is in the student 
		satisfaction of their collaboration during the physical labs. These 
		first results show that a collaborative VR approach is able to enhance 
		their teamworking skills and help students prepare for a successful 
		collaboration in the physical labs (Table 6). However, additional 
		implementations in larger student populations are needed to further 
		understand the differences of experiential learning and situated 
		cognition, and the role of the latter approach in surveying engineering 
		education.
		 4.     CONCLUSIONS 
		 Surveying engineering is a profession that continuously experiences and 
		embraces new technological advancements. Virtual reality technology has 
		found its way into the surveying profession and surveying education. 
		With respect to the latter, we see in an increased number of case 
		studies testing and integrating immersive technologies in surveying 
		engineering education. It is important that the integration of immersive 
		technologies takes place under a theoretical framework to identify and 
		attain specific pedagogical goals. This study presented the pedagogical 
		foundations that we often encounter in immersive technologies. We have 
		presented and implemented VR labs that followed two different 
		approaches, namely experiential learning and situated cognition / 
		collaborative learning. In the former approach students engage in a 
		virtual experience and learn by doing, while in the latter the focus is 
		placed on communication and collaboration. The assessment of the two 
		approaches showed that both immersive implementations are capable of 
		supporting surveying engineering education and assisting in preparing 
		students for physical labs. We find no significant difference between 
		the two VR implementations; however, comparison with years without the 
		support of VR, shows a significant difference in favor of the VR 
		technology. We observed a significant difference in the peer-to-peer 
		evaluations in terms of the teamwork and collaboration in the physical 
		labs, indicating that the situated cognition approach is able to also 
		enhance teamwork skills. Despite the many benefits of conducting 
		collaborative VR labs, we do find an important limitation. The 
		multiplayer support in VR makes the implementations more complex, and 
		there is higher potential for software issues, which we experienced in 
		the USMA implementation. There are also challenges related to hardware, 
		software, and driver updates; thus, maintaining a VR system for teaching 
		is still demanding. In future years, we plan to conduct additional tests 
		and using larger student samples to further explore and understand how 
		the two different learning approaches can support surveying engineering 
		education.  
		 REFERENCES
		
			- Aydede, M., & Robbins, P. (Eds.). (2009). The Cambridge handbook of 
		situated cognition. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press
- Bink, M. L., Injurgio, V. J., James, D. R., Miller, I. I., & John, T. 
		(2015). Training Capability Data for Dismounted Soldier Training System 
		(No. ARI-RN-1986). Army Research Inst For The Behavioral And Social 
		Sciences Fort Belvoir Va.
- Bolkas, D., Chiampi, J., Chapman, J., & Pavill, V. F. (2020). Creating a 
		virtual reality environment with a fusion of sUAS and TLS point-clouds. 
		International journal of image and data fusion, 11(2), 136-161.
- Bolkas, D., Chiampi, J., Fioti, J., & Gaffney, D. (2021). Surveying 
		reality (SurReal): Software to simulate surveying in virtual reality. 
		ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 10(5), 296.
- Bolkas, D., Chiampi, J. D., Fioti, J., & Gaffney, D. (2022). First 
		assessment results of surveying engineering labs in immersive and 
		interactive virtual reality. Journal of Surveying Engineering, 148(1), 
		04021028.
- Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and 
		the culture of learning. Educational researcher, 18(1), 32-42.
- Chheang, V., Saalfeld, P., Joeres, F., Boedecker, C., Huber, T., Huettl, 
		F., Lang, H., Preim, B.  & Hansen, C. (2021). A collaborative 
		virtual reality environment for liver surgery planning. Computers & 
		Graphics, 99, 234-246.
- Fowler, C. (2015). Virtual reality and learning: Where is the 
		pedagogy?. British journal of educational technology, 46(2), 412-422.
- Hur, J. W., Shin, H., Jung, D., Lee, H. J., Lee, S., Kim, G. J., Cho, 
		C.Y., Choi, S., Lee, S.M. & Cho, C. H. (2021). Virtual reality–based 
		psychotherapy in social anxiety disorder: fMRI study using a 
		self-referential task. JMIR mental health, 8(4), e25731.
- Johnston, E., Olivas, G., Steele, P., Smith, C., & Bailey, L. (2018). 
		Exploring pedagogical foundations of existing virtual reality 
		educational applications: A content analysis study. Journal of 
		Educational Technology Systems, 46(4), 414-439.
- Kebritchi, M. & Hirumi, A. (2008). Examining the pedagogical foundations 
		of modern educational computer games. Computers & Education, 51(4), 
		1729-1743.
- Leica-Geosystems (2022). vGIS.
			https://leica-geosystems.com/en-us/products/gis-collectors/gis-partners/vgis 
		[Accessed 12/31/2022]
- Levin, E., Shults, R., Habibi, R., An, Z., & Roland, W. (2020). 
		Geospatial virtual reality for cyberlearning in the field of topographic 
		surveying: Moving towards a cost-effective mobile solution. ISPRS 
		International Journal of Geo-Information, 9(7), 433.
- Ma, L. (2021). An immersive context teaching method for college English 
		based on artificial intelligence and machine learning in virtual reality 
		technology. Mobile Information Systems, 2021.
- O'Banion, M. S., Majkowicz, D. C., Boyce, M. W., Wright, W. C., 
		Oxendine, C. E., & Lewis, N. S. (2020). Evaluating immersive 
		visualization technology for use in geospatial science education. 
		Surveying and Land Information Science, 79(1), 15-22.
- Piroozfar, A., Farr, E. R., Boseley, S., Essa, A., & Jin, R. (2018). The 
		application of Augmented Reality (AR) in the Architecture Engineering 
		and Construction (AEC) industry. In Proceedings of the 10th 
		International Conference on Construction in the 21st Century (CITC-10), 
		July 2-4, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
- Potkonjak, V., Gardner, M., Callaghan, V., Mattila, P., Guetl, C., 
		Petrović, V. M., & Jovanović, K. (2016). Virtual laboratories for 
		education in science, technology, and engineering: A review. Computers & 
		Education, 95, 309-327.
- Psotka, J. (2013). Educational games and virtual reality as disruptive 
		technologies. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 16(2), 69–80.
- Sakib, M. N., Chaspari, T., Ahn, C., & Behzadan, A. (2020, July). An 
		experimental study of wearable technology and immersive virtual reality 
		for drone operator training. In Proceedings of the EG-ICE 2020 Workshop 
		on Intelligent Computing in Engineering, Berlin, Germany (pp. 1-4).
- Singh, G., Mantri, A., Sharma, O., & Kaur, R. (2021). Virtual reality 
		learning environment for enhancing electronics engineering laboratory 
		experience. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 29(1), 
		229-243.
- Solak, E., & Erdem, G. (2015). A Content Analysis of Virtual Reality 
		Studies in Foreign Language Education. Participatory Educational 
		Research, spi15, 2, 21-26.
- Trimble (2022). Trimble Sitevision.
			https://sitevision.trimble.com/ [Accessed 10/13/2022]
- Vincent, D. S., Sherstyuk, A., Burgess, L., & Connolly, K. K. (2008). 
		Teaching mass casualty triage skills using immersive three‐dimensional 
		virtual reality. Academic Emergency Medicine, 15(11), 1160-1165.
- Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard 
		University Press.
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
		 CONTACTS
		 Dr. Dimitrios Bolkas
		Pennsylvania State University, Wilkes-Barre Campus 
		44 University Drive 
		Dallas, PA, 18612
		United States of America 
		Tel. +1 570 675 9127 
		Email: dxb80 [at] psu.edu
		 
		Dr. Matthew O’Banion 
		United States Military Academy
		745 Brewerton Rd.
		West Point, NY, 10996
		United States of America
		Email: matthew.obanion [at] westpoint.edu
		 
		Jeffrey Chiampi 
		Pennsylvania State University, Wilkes-Barre Campus 
		44 University Drive 
		Dallas, PA, 18612
		United States of America
		Tel. +1 570 675 9237 
		Email: jdc308 [at] psu.edu 
		 
		Jordan Laughlin 
		United States Military Academy
		745 Brewerton Rd.
		West Point, NY, 10996
		United States of America
		Email: 
		jordan.laughlin [at] westpoint.edu