Virtual Reality represents a promising career guidance tool, allowing young people to explore working life in an engaging and safe way. In this paper, we report a study that investigates the pedagogical potential of Virtual Reality in career guidance, how this technology contributes to the development of career learning skills, and how to integrate it in the daily operational practice of career guidance. We adopt a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative interviews with counselors and quantitative evaluation data from clients at welfare centers. The findings indicate that Virtual Reality can foster engagement, reflection, and vocational orientation, particularly among youth with limited work experience. At the same time, the use of this technology and its long-term impact is shaped in a determinant way by systematic constraints such as adequate training, time, technical support, and managerial commitment. The paper contributes to current research by showing how virtual reality can enhance career guidance and offering practical recommendations for its effective integration into practice.

The paper presents a study of applying peer learning enhanced by Augmented Reality to neuroanatomy education. One of our research questions focuses on exploring how peer learning can improve students’ motivation, engagement, and autonomy. With other research questions, we look at the design and evaluation of an Augmented Reality application to better support collaborative learning and engagement, communication, and interaction. We employed mixed methods in the Design-Based Research paradigm, leveraging the strengths of quantitative and qualitative data, to design a holistic, educational intervention and describe its impact. The findings indicate that the approach we applied can enhance autonomy, motivation and engagement via collaboration and visualization. The data also show the potential of the Nevrolens application to effectively support group work and learning about brain anatomy. The paper suggests directions for future research on peer learning with Augmented Reality, including both educational and technological recommendations.

Abstract Extended reality (XR) applications for education are usually associated with motivation, engagement, knowledge and experiences that are difficult to achieve in the real world. One example of such knowledge in military education is the threat-based approach to protection of civilians in armed conflicts. The Norwegian Defence University College (NDUC) educates officers on the threat-based approach. This approach challenges conventional military practice, introducing new ways of thinking about what military forces can and cannot do to protect civilians from violence. Today, militaries are expected to protect civilians from perpetrators that target them as part of their warfare, expanding their responsibilities under International Humanitarian Law. This expansion of tasks represents “troublesome knowledge” for many military officers and demands a deeper understanding of the rationales and strategies driving perpetrators’ targeting of civilians. To overcome this pedagogical challenge, we developed an XR-supported educational program combining immersive experiences and pedagogical approaches, including combined 360°-videos and embodiment, dialogue with virtual humans and collaborative VR-landscapes to encourage immersive peer-to-peer learning. The results are encouraging, suggesting high levels of acceptance by learners of the threat-based concept, an effect on stimulating critical discussion and a positive reaction to XR-supported learning.

This demo presents an innovative use of embodiment in combination with 360º video to support teaching the threat-based approach to protection of civilians at a military university. To create a realistic and emotionally appealing XR experience and at the same time save on developing time and costs, scanned 3D objects and avatar were integrated in 360º videos. The app also includes interactions with a virtual perpetrator and collaborative map exercise and received positive feedback from end users.

The Norwegian Armed Forces educate future joint staff officers to better understand the role, utility, and limitations of military force in protecting civilians from violence in armed conflict. At the center of this education is the threat-based approach to protection of civilians that redefines and details the role armed forces play in protecting civilians from different perpetrators of violence. Educators have experienced obstacles in teaching this new approach, as it challenges existing doctrinal thinking about force in contemporary armed conflict. These challenges inspired a search for a new and innovative way to overcome learning thresholds, leading to the development of an Extended Reality (XR) application to support teaching of the threat-based approach. The application employs several immersive experiences, including a new form of embodiment that combines digital avatars and 360°-videos, an agent-based simulation, and a collaborative map visualization. The pedagogical approach is built on threshold concepts theory, empathy, and peer learning. Preliminary results point to faster and deeper learning, and a significant interest in using XR to improve learning in higher military education.

Adoption of immersive technologies in higher education can potentially offer novel and educative experiences. Despite the increasing amount of available XR content for education, adoption of XR for regular teaching at higher institutions appears to be still lagging. Some reasons for hesitancy in integrating the technologies in university courses are barriers such as lack of content, cost of equipment or expectations on technical knowledge required to use the technology. We run an immersive tech lab to support innovation in education. The lab supports educators with equipment and expertise to include immersive technologies in their courses. In this paper we present the results of a thematic analysis of interviews with lectures at a Norwegian higher education institution. Our contribution is to give further insight into factors the educators consider when adopting immersive technologies in their educational practices.

The COVID-19 outbreak triggered an increased and sudden need for adopting either fully digital or hybrid approaches to teaching. At the same time, the use of ‘traditional’ digital technology for teaching has several barriers and difficulties. Our experience teaching remotely during the pandemic led us to reflect on the combination of digital tools and online VR environments for higher education. In this paper we discuss the use of an online browser-based VR platform, Mozilla Hubs. We reflect on our experience and propose guidelines for educators based on what we learned.

This paper presents a new concept of `Immersive Job Taste' - interactive virtual reality demonstration of a workplace that aims to give a feeling of going through an average workday of a professional with elements of basic training. The main target audiences of Job Taste simulations are young job seekers who can be aided in selecting a career path at school or a welfare center, choosing the first or a new occupation, often after a period of being unemployed. The design methodology behind the Immersive Job Taste concept includes presentation of a workplace, typical tasks, feedback on performance, and advice on applying for jobs in the specific industry. We developed several scenarios and applied different virtual and augmented reality concepts to build prototypes for different types of devices. The prototypes were evaluated by several groups of primary users and experts. The results indicate a generally very positive attitude towards the concept. In this paper, we discuss the potential impact of applying the concept and directions for future work.

This paper presents the results of the Virtual Internship project that aims to help young job seekers get insights of different workplaces via immersive and interactive experiences. We designed a concept of `Immersive Job Taste' that provides a rich presentation of occupations with elements of workplace training, targeting a specific group of young job seekers, including high-school students and unemployed. We developed several scenarios and applied different virtual and augmented reality concepts to build prototypes for different types of devices. The intermediary and the final versions of the prototypes were evaluated by several groups of primary users and experts, including over 70 young job seekers and high school students and over 45 various professionals and experts. The data were collected using questionnaires and interviews. The results indicate a generally very positive attitude towards the concept of immersive job taste, although with significant differences between job seekers and experts. The prototype developed for room-scale virtual reality with controllers was generally evaluated better than those including cardboard with 360 videos or with animated 3D graphics and augmented reality glasses. In the paper, we discuss several aspects, such as the potential of immersive technologies for career guidance, fighting youth unemployment by better informing the young job seekers, and various practical and technology considerations.

Training and visualizing operational culture is important since understanding culture is a significant aspect of mission planning and execution. Serious games and 3D simulations provide efficient training and battlefield visualization in a safe and relatively inexpensive immersive environment. The research presented in this paper was initiated by the CAMO project (Cultural Awareness in Military Operations). The goal of the project was to create a low-cost simulation in the 3D virtual world of Second Life for pre-deployment cultural awareness training among Norwegian military personnel preparing for service in Afghanistan. In this paper, we focus on the role of crowd simulations and virtual humans for visualizing Afghan culture for training purposes, also in a civilian context.

Understanding culture is an integral part of international operations in developing countries and conflict zones. Cultural encounters in countries such as Afghanistan might introduce a number of challenges. This paper presents the experiences with the CAMO project (Cultural Awareness in Military Operations) seeking to address these challenges. The goal of the project has been to create a game-based simulation in the virtual world of Second Life for pre-deployment cultural awareness training among Norwegian military personnel preparing for service in Afghanistan. At the same time, due to the gradual withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, training cultural awareness among civilian personnel becomes more important. This paper will present some experiences from the CAMO project, discussing how the proposed methodology could be extended for non-military use as well, and outlining the challenges and directions for future work.

In this work, we propose an innovative approach, 3D recording, to support serious games and educational role-playing. 3D virtual worlds (3D VWs) are often used for generating educational content. Even though this technology allows creating full context of the real-life educational process, it is usually recorded as flat 2D video (such as Machinima in Second Life), which eliminates many advantages of the technology, such as sense of presence (Mckerlich et al. 2011). In addition, there are no systematic approaches for combining synchronous and asynchronous learning modes. We propose that 3D recording is capable of solving these challenges, as it offers an easy way for creating advanced 3D content from synchronous activities, as well as accessing this content in both synchronous and asynchronous modes.

In recent years, virtual museums have become more widespread and the usage of them for educational purposes has increased. They are used to facilitate educational process in different ways, such as presenting their exhibitions online and serving as a place for educational activities. In this paper, we present an example of such a virtual museum - ldquo3D Virtual Environment for Learning Artsrdquo. Still, only few of existing virtual museums provide sufficient support for collaboration and social interaction. Therefore, considering the growing importance of collaborative technologies and social networking in education, we show how a virtual museum can be enhanced and extended to serve as a collaborative virtual workshop.

Much architectural design work increasingly addresses an international audience. But many designers continue to work in isolation. In practice, however, their work includes international collaboration. This requires cross-cultural understandings with their co-collaborators. There are few opportunities for this to occur in a pedagogical setting. The 3D co-located laboratory (3DCollab) described in this paper was used as a cross-cultural exchange platform to address the need for design students to practice collaborating remotely. What the 3DCollab did was to facilitate cross-cultural exchange in a fun and informative environment where learning was constructed and played out in a 3D virtual environment (3DVE). The project involved students across three cooperating institutions: The University of Queensland (Australia); the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology (Taiwan); and, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim (Norway). It builds on previous exercises conducted by the authors. As far as the authors of this paper are aware this is the first e-learning application to focus on cross-cultural understanding in a 3DVE.

The project described in this paper involved students across three cooperating institutions, on three different continents in different time zones, building a "babel tower" in a 3D collaborative virtual environment (CVE). Much information and communication technology (ICT) work today involves international collaboration. This requires cross-cultural understandings with one's co-collaborators. There are few opportunities for this to occur in a pedagogical setting. Therefore, this paper outlines a pedagogically-oriented case study of the use of a 3D CVE as a cross-cultural collaborative classroom.

Much information communication technology (ICT) design work involves international collaboration. This requires cross-cultural understandings with one's co-collaborators. There are few opportunities for this to occur in a pedagogical setting. This paper outlines a pedagogically-oriented case study of the use of a 3D collaborative virtual environment (3DCVE). The 3D co-located laboratory (3DCollab) described in this paper served as a cross-cultural exchange platform. It fostered deeper understandings of alternate meanings to everyday social and work practices and design computing assumptions. The project involved students across three cooperating institutions, on three different continents in different time zones. It builds on previous exercises conducted by the authors

In the recent years, the usage of 3D cyberworlds for educational purposes has increased. The metaphors behind the design of virtual places are quite diverse, from replication of real universities to art museums and scientific labs. Based on the results of a case study we have performed, this paper provides an initial set of requirements for a cyberworld representing an existing university. In this connection, we analyze place metaphors and associated design features of the virtual campus of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore in the context of related work. Finally, we discuss the correspondence between the identified metaphors and associated educational goals, providing directions for further development of the virtual campus

Creating and maintaining a shared information space is an integral part of a learning community development. Computer-based tools such as Web forums and discussion groups have been widely used for such support. The usage of 3D collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) has also been advocated because these systems might better capture the three-dimensional nature of human memory. In this paper we describe our experience of creating a FAQ in a university course on a Web-forum and a 3D CVE and provide recommendations for design of information spaces in 3D CVEs.

For effective cooperation, sharing of resources, a good social climate and therefore better learning, students need to maintain awareness of the social situation in a group or a community, or social awareness (SA). This paper proposes using 3D Collaborative Virtual Environments for social awareness support among university students and presents requirements for a CVE providing such support. A virtual world, Viras, designed according to these requirements, has been evaluated in case studies involving university students, to identify benefits and limitations of this approach.

Space is important for learning and socializing. Cyberworlds provide a new space for socialization and communication with a great degree of flexibility, allowing users to create and manipulate virtual land. This suggests considering virtual spaces as artifacts. In this paper we use different theoretical approaches on artifacts and experiences of usage of a virtual world we have created to revise the original design and to derive a new set of requirements for virtual places and spatial artifacts.

In this paper we present the experiences of usage of Viras, a collaborative virtual environment for social awareness support in educational settings. Collaborative Virtual environments (CVE) have lately been used for learning in different contexts, and offer promising possibilities for supporting social awareness. In our study, we look at how students evaluate CVE in educational settings and investigate the importance of different factors on social awareness.

Social awareness is essential for effective learning. However, natural environments do not always provide optimal support for it. We look at the potentials of collaborative virtual environments (CVE) in this context and provide a set of requirements for educational CVEs based on the needs of learning communities. We also present a prototype based on these requirements.