Aeroverse: Aerospace Education in Extended Reality

Abstract

Aerospace education is a continuously evolving field that is increasingly dependent on digital tools. However, it is ambitious to shift the teaching paradigm to accommodate new cutting-edge technologies. Extended reality (XR), which encompasses augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR), is an example of such technology. In recent years, VR has seen an increase in usage in education as a novel way to provide students with immersive learning experiences, and XR has a long history of use within the working aerospace industry. However, application in the overlap between the two— aerospace engineering education— remains largely unexplored to date. The themes addressed in this thesis are two-fold: first, the goal is to create VR learning modules to supplement the existing aerospace engineering curriculum. Second, the aim is to validate whether VR technology as a teaching medium can improve learning outcomes and student engagement within the MIT AeroAstro department. With these themes in mind, two experiments were conducted to explore this topic. The first experiment presents the design and execution of an experimental course aimed at aerospace engineering students to assess the educational impact of VR. Over the course of this study, ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests found that there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in performance between the VR and non-VR groups, save for a few exceptional cases. The second experiment details the integration of a single VR module into an existing course in which all students interacted with the VR activity. Students responded positively to this experiment, reporting increased feelings of engagement and a sense that it aligned well with the rest of the course. One-sample Wilcoxon tests reveal that these findings are largely significant (p < 0.05). This thesis advances the work on assessing VR use for aerospace education. The implications of this work may influence the decisions of other educators regarding the adoption of VR technology as supplements to their own teaching methodologies. As a whole, this thesis contributes to the broader conversation on integrating VR into the classroom.