Page 141 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2020

AN IMMERSIVE MOBILE APPLICATION FOR IMPROVED LEARNING AND VIRTUAL
TOUR EXPERIENCE: A NATURE RESERVE PERSPECTIVE

Carmenita Oersen; Ruchen Wyngaard; Lebogang Nkabinde
University of Western Cape

ABSTRACT are envisioned to produce a realistic and immersive
environment developed to encourage exploration among

The purpose of this study was to develop an immersive users [2]. Moreover, the reality of the challenges from the
virtual reality application for the University of Western COVID-19 pandemic has also created a further need to adopt
Cape’s nature reserve in South Africa. For this focus on a technological and self-guided solutions that can help the
nature reserve project, the project team was requested to nature reserve stay relevant and ahead of the COVID-19

build a self-guided tour capable of achieving knowledge constraints. Hence, the motivation for this project.

transfer, and which has aesthetic pleasure. The study was

informed by the peculiar challenge of the nature reserve and 1.2 Objectives for the Nature Reserve Project
existing literature to identify gaps that may occur in the body
of knowledge. The scrum project methodology was used to The university's nature reserve aim was to build a virtual

manage the life cycle of the project. The application was self-tour application. The virtual tour was anticipated to

successfully built within the given time frame and the function as a base for ecological training, environmental
client’s feedback was overwhelmingly positive. education, research and aesthetic activities. One of the
greatest projected aims was to preserve the integrity and
Keywords – 4IR, immersive technology, nature reserve, physical characteristics of the nature reserve while also
self-guided tour affording visitors the opportunity to experience the original
nature reserve’s endangered vegetation.
1. INTRODUCTION
This project has documented several requirements listed by

The university’s Department of Computer Science in the client while developing a VR tour experience. The virtual

conjunction with the nature reserve has embarked on tour offered users the ability to traverse an immersive

developing a project. The aim of this project is to develop experience in which users are able to explore a 3D rendered

immersive mobile applications to enable users to remotely environment of the nature reserve. While traversing the

access educational content that would otherwise be rather reserve, users were able to interact with points of interest and
costly to experience, and engage in knowledge transfer that gain insight into several plant and animal specimens often
is equivalent, or if possible better, than in-field trips. found throughout the nature reserve. The goal was to develop
a VR simulation to replicate the experience of the actual tour.
1.1 Rationale for Nature Reserve Project Other objectives for this project included: a virtual presence
to give specimens and nature reserve specific information,
The nature reserve is currently under-resourced and unable and the ability to move back and forth between various points
to offer nature reserve tours to a large number of students and of interest as the user desires.
visitors. Moreover, the reserve is only able to offer tours once
weekly, due to manpower constraints. The nature reserve has The remaining part of the paper is organized as follows:
a need to showcase appropriate content and carry over Section 2 presents the literature review, while Section 3
necessary skills, while simultaneously ensuring that learning documents the research design and methodology. The results
remains a meaningful and enjoyable experience to visitors. are in Section 4, with the discussion held in Section 5. The
The reason for this is to encourage mindfulness of the entire paper finishes off with the Conclusion in Section 6, followed
reserve environment and, establish a positive attitude by a list of references.
towards the natural biodiversity, inspire formal education
especially of conservation, and ultimately conserve the 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
natural lowland systems. The adoption of immersive
technologies for self-guided field tours is particularly useful 2.1 Overview
when developing applications of this nature since it enhances
visualization and encourages ecological protection while Virtual reality as a teaching aid has been praised for
investing in biodiversity [1]. Virtual reality (VR) field tours enhancing higher education in several ways [3]. Being a
978-92-61-31391-3/CFP2068P @ ITU 2020 – 83 – Kaleidoscope