USING VIRTUAL-REALITY AS A TOOL TO ENHANCE CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION

Because Virtual Reality (VR) offers the opportunity to visualize, expl ore, manipulate, and interact with objects within a computer generated environment, it is hypothesized to be an excellent educational tool f or use in classroom instruction for engineering students involved in d esign development, evaluation, and validation. The goal of this resear ch study was to explore the possibilities of using VR in Ergonomics co urses within the Industrial Engineering curriculum; specifically this paper assesses the perceptions of students and the ability of students to use VR as a tool for performing ergonomic evaluations of work task s and workstations. The objectives of this project were constructed to answer two important questions. Can VR be used to perform ergonomic a nalysis? How accurately can students perform ergonomic evaluations wit hin a VR environment? (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.