Y. Matsubara et al., VIRTUAL LEARNING-ENVIRONMENT FOR DISCOVERY LEARNING AND ITS APPLICATION ON OPERATOR TRAINING, IEICE transactions on information and systems, E80D(2), 1997, pp. 176-188
The intelligent tutoring system(ITS)enables students to learn knowledg
e deductively. However, students often become passive, because the ITS
takes the initiative in their learning process. Also their knowledge
is often superficial, because they can not understand different kinds
of knowledge due to their limited experience. This paper presents a vi
rtual learning environment(VLE)for discovery learning. The VLE has bee
n built with virtual reality(VR) technology, and supports the student'
s discovery learning activity and fosters his/her creativity and adapt
ability based on a broad range of experience by using the functions of
VR such as interactivity, direct manipulation interface, walk-through
, the function to change view point freely. Also, the VLE connects the
explorative training by means of VR with guided education by the ITS.
The student model in VLE evaluates the student's level of understandi
ng and adjusts the training accordingly. We have built an operator tra
ining system for the training of control activities of electric power
plant using the conception of the VLE. The purposes of this system are
the following: to aid students to acquire adequate knowledge and skil
ls, and to aid them to gain confidence and experience through their le
arning activities. The student model evaluates the student's level of
understanding for experiential knowledge connected that of skills in V
R with that of knowledge in ITS.