Virtual field trips are transforming education in biology and other place-based disciplines -- and not just since COVID-19 has imposed social distancing constraints. Efficient methods for content creation, combined with affordable immersive technology, provide the opportunity to integrate immersive experiences into ever-larger classes. However,…

An immersive virtual reality (iVR) game for high school students to learn about locations in their watershed with a primary focus on their city was designed and developed, employing a design model that focuses on flow. An exploratory study with the iVR game was conducted in an urban school in the eastern USA with 57 adolescents ages 16-18 from a…

This paper explored students' experiences in an international virtual student mobility (VSM) program at a Japanese national university implemented in collaboration with partner universities in the Asia Pacific region and Europe. Through students' narratives, the study discerned how students perceive "mobility" and the concept of…

Digital game-based and gamified technologies hold much promise to promote the development of learners' conceptual knowledge. This efficacy study used desktop virtual reality (dVR) to investigate how the place-based digital gameful learning experience (DGLE) "Watershed Explorers", implemented as a curriculum enhancement activity, impacted…

In-person field education through exploration is fundamental in geoscience, but equal access is limited by time, cost, safety, distance, physical ability, and instructor variability. Technology advances allow students to explore pedagogically rich but inaccessible places through virtual field trips (VFTs). Studies show that VFTs result in…

In its broadest and historical sense, place-based education refers to education that occurs outside of the physical boundaries of a school building (Dewey 1910; Sobel 1996; Theobald 1997; Woodhouse and Knapp 2000). Place-based education, colloquially referred to as the "field trip", is predominantly considered a pedagogic tool of the…

This mixed-methods study explored the use of an augmented reality, location-based, iPad game to enhance the learning experience of young elementary history students. Utilizing the ARIS platform and a design-based research approach, researchers and teachers built a customized game experience that was inserted into a school's traditional second…