Interactive Contents with 360-Degree Panorama Virtual Reality for Soil and Water Conservation Outdoor Classroom

The paper proposes an interactive virtual reality (VR) 360-degree panorama application system which can be applied in education for soil and water conservation. In the development of the system, the interactive VR 360-degree panoramic videos are produced first. The contents of videos come from introductions of facilities built in soil and water conservation outdoor classrooms. The design of video contents and interactions between video contents and users is on the basis of the cognitive theory of multimedia learning. Additionally, the system offers an android app developed using VR technology to offer users with interactions between users and videos. Learners first download the app into a smart phone and then insert the phone into a cheap VR helmet. Subsequently, they play the app with wearing the VR helmet to watch VR 360-degree panoramic videos so as to achieve immersion on watching video in a 3D VR environment. Moreover, learners can move the interaction sign, a single-circle shape, by shaking their VR helmets on the specific marks on screen to trigger corresponding interactive actions such as selecting a video, exiting viewing video, answering questions of true-false items, etc. Experimental results show the way participants received the system has better interaction than that without the system. Furthermore, the interaction portfolios are also collected in the cloud space for future analysis. Finally, the system can be also applied in learning activities of performing flipped classroom strategy when people will visit soil and water conservation outdoor classrooms.