3D Virtual spaces supporting engineering learning activities

Virtual environments constitute the support platform for various teaching and learning activities. Instead of a local application for this purpose, this paper explores the effects of using distributed virtual reality environments in the educational process. The architecture of the presented system is based on the recently developed web-based technology called AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And XML), implemented on a Linux operating system configured to run Apache with PHP and MySQL support; i.e., LAMP architecture, which contributes to the portability and ease of installation of the application. The platform is designed to support the integration of lesson modules such as the EngView environment which is discussed in more detail in this contribution. Pedagogical, technical, and implementation-related aspects are presented in conjunction with the virtual environment used in the engineering training curriculum. Statistical information resulted from the training shows a significant increase in task completion time when the virtual setup is used.