Immersive virtual reality (VR) is a technology that can be effective for procedural skills training through game-based simulations such as serious games. The current study describes the instructional design, development, and evaluation of the FSCHOOL fire preparedness serious game in a cave automatic virtual environment (CAVE-VR) for elementary school teachers. The main game mechanics include a storytelling scenario, enhanced realism, freedom of movement, levels, and points corresponding to the learning mechanics of instruction, action, simulation, discovery, repetition, and imitation. The game was developed in Unity 3D with the help of the Fire Dynamics Simulator and a script to emulate and visualize fire propagation. The game featured three levels to respond to school fire safety regulations and was evaluated by elementary school teachers (N = 33) in Greece. A comparative quantitative study was conducted with experimental and control groups. The results indicate that the VR serious game is appropriate for training, providing challenge, enjoyment, and mastery.

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Design, Development, and Evaluation of a Virtual Reality Serious Game for School Fire Preparedness Training

Knowledge and skills in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and Edge Computing (EC) are more and more important for industry. Therefore, it is crucial to know what current students and future employees can offer to the industry. University students develop their knowledge and skills to support the industry in implementing modern technologies in the future. It can be expected that the first source of information for students will be lectures and other activities at the university. However, they may obtain knowledge from other sources. This article presents the results of research conducted among students assessing their own knowledge and skills in the field of IoT, AI, and EC. The research was preceded by an analysis of curricula at selected universities in terms of topics related to AI, IoT, and EC. Based on the results of the analysis, survey questions were prepared. The developed questionnaire was made available to students. The research sample for the survey participants was 563 students. The results obtained were analyzed. The results of the analysis show which issues are better known to students and which are worse. The information presented in this paper can be a source of information for the industry that can assess the competences that are or will be available on the labor market in the near future. Additionally, universities can obtain information on the areas in which there are competency gaps and which methods of teaching AI, IoT, and EC are better perceived by students.

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Plan and Develop Advanced Knowledge and Skills for Future Industrial Employees in the Field of Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Edge Computing

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is a meta-discipline employing active, problem-centric approaches such as game-based learning. STEM competencies are an essential part of the educational response to the transformations caused by the fourth industrial revolution, spearheaded by the convergence of multiple exponential technologies. Teachers’ attitude is a critical success factor for any technology-enhanced learning innovation. This study explored in-service teachers’ views on the use of a digital educational escape room in virtual reality. Forty-one (n = 41) K-12 educators participated in a mixed research study involving a validated survey questionnaire instrument and an online debriefing session in the context of a teacher training program. The key findings revealed that such alternative instructional solutions can potentially enhance the cognitive benefits and learning outcomes, but further highlighted the shortcomings that instructional designers should consider while integrating them in contexts different than the intended. In line with this effort, more systematic professional development actions are recommended to encourage the development of additional teacher-led interventions.

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Teacher Perceptions on Virtual Reality Escape Rooms for STEM Education

Robotic competitions are an excellent way to promote innovative solutions for the current industries’ challenges and entrepreneurial spirit, acquire technical and transversal skills through active teaching, and promote this area to the public. In other words, since robotics is a multidisciplinary field, its competitions address several knowledge topics, especially in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) category, that are shared among the students and researchers, driving further technology and science. A new competition encompassed in the Portuguese Robotics Open was created according to the Industry 4.0 concept in the production chain. In this competition, RobotAtFactory 4.0, a shop floor, is used to mimic a fully automated industrial logistics warehouse and the challenges it brings. Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) must be used to operate without supervision and perform the tasks that the warehouse requests. There are different types of boxes which dictate their partial and definitive destinations. In this reasoning, AMRs should identify each and transport them to their destinations. This paper describes an approach to the indoor localization system for the competition based on the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and ArUco markers. Different innovation methods for the obtained observations were tested and compared in the EKF. A real robot was designed and assembled to act as a test bed for the localization system’s validation. Thus, the approach was validated in the real scenario using a factory floor with the official specifications provided by the competition organization.

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A robot localization proposal for the RobotAtFactory 4.0: A novel robotics competition within the Industry 4.0 concept

Life-long learning is a necessity associated with the requirements of the fourth industrial revolution. Although distance online education played a major role in the evolution of the modern education system, this share grew dramatically because of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and the social distancing measures that were imposed. However, the quick and extensive adoption of online learning tools also highlighted the multidimensional weaknesses of online education and the needs that arise when considering such practices. To this end, the ease of collecting digital data, as well as the overall evolution of data analytics, enables researchers, and by extension educators, to systematically evaluate the pros and cons of such systems. For instance, advanced data mining methods can be used to find potential areas of concern or to confirm elements of excellence. In this work, we used text analysis methods on data that have emerged from participants’ feedback in online lifelong learning programmes for professional development. We analysed 1890 Greek text-based answers of participants to open evaluation questions using standard text analysis processes. We finally produced 7-gram tokens from the words in the texts, from which we constructed meaningful sentences and characterized them as positive or negative. We introduced a new metric, called acceptance grade, to quantitatively evaluate them as far as their positive or negative content for the online courses is concerned. We finally based our evaluation on the top 10 sentences of each category (positive, negative). Validation of the results via two external experts and data triangulation showed an accuracy of 80%.

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E-Learning Courses Evaluation on the Basis of Trainees’ Feedback on Open Questions Text Analysis

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skills comprise a crucial meta-discipline for success in the 21st century. Education in the industry 4.0 era can be enhanced by adopting Virtual (VR), Mixed (MR), and Augmented (AR). VR can support creative student-centered teaching and learning methods in STEM, such as playful learning, gameful learning (gamification), and serious games. Serious escape rooms are digital interactive, live adventure breakout games with a pedagogical rationale. This paper examines the perceptions of K-12 school education teachers towards digital educational escape rooms for STEM education in VR environments. Twenty-eight Greek teachers responded to a questionnaire after having experienced a cost-effective science-themed digital escape room. Results indicate that teachers reacted positively to the VR escape room, appreciating its value for learning. Moreover, they are eager to engage in professional development activities and embrace gameful learning methods.

Virtual Reality Escape Rooms for STEM Education in Industry 4.0: Greek Teachers Perspectives

Within the past years, cultural organizations have shown an increasing tendency to adopt technologically innovative solutions in their activities. This shift is attributed to the wider technological evolution, in general, and the manifold capabilities that modern mobile devices have, in particular. Augmented Reality (AR) applications constitute a typical example of an interactive solution which has been already applied in various domains (such as, recreation, education). Motivated by the wider adoption that this technological solution has received, this article discusses the design and the developmental steps followed to create an AR (marker-based) application, which is dedicated to the medieval castle of Arta in Greece. The application has been developed using the Unity 3D platform and the Vuforia Software Development Kit (SDK). As part of our ongoing research and development efforts, our future plans include the empirical evaluation of the developed application. In addition, we hope that the presentation of this work will motivate cultural organisation to consider the adoption and the use of the AR technology as a means to complement and enhance the visitors’ user and, consequently, learning experience.

George Papantzikos

Papers

Virtual Reality Escape Rooms for STEM Education in Industry 4.0: Greek Teachers Perspectives

Designing a Cultural Augmented Reality Application For Educational Purposes