Learning Approaches in a 3D Virtual Environment for Learning Energy Generation from Renewable Sources

Virtual worlds open up new horizons in education. Given the technological characteristics of virtual environments, a primary research area concerns the consideration of the pe-dagogical approaches that efficiently leverage their unique capabilities and enhance students learning. In this work, we examine the efficiency of learning approaches in a 3D virtual world environment developed to assist tutors in teaching and students in learning topics of the domain of renewable energy sources. In the 3D virtual environment, several types of power plants, factories and constructions have been designed to simulate their real world operations. The environment provides learners the possibility to interact with 3D machines and constructions and manipulate their parts, aim-ing at getting a deeper understanding of their functionality. Various learning activities based on the principles of constructivism have been designed, aiming to actively engage students and make learning more entertaining and efficient. The platform has been evaluated in real classroom conditions and the results indicate that the utilization of suitable learning activities in terms of students’ active engagement and constructivism knowledge acquisition can motivate stu-dents and improve learning efficiency.