Multi-User Mixed Reality Environments for Distance Learning

Technological innovation is changing every aspect of our lives and extending into education, where it is introducing profound changes to both the traditional classroom and online learning environments. This chapter explores the future of MUVEs, focusing particularly on immersive mixed reality learning environments and the challenges involved in the shift to multidimensional environments in education. It reviews the earlier developments in MUVEs and identifies a barrier to their deployment in science and engineering education: their inability to support physical collaborative laboratory work. The chapter then explains how advances in mixed-reality research may offer a solution to this problem through a case study of a cutting-edge example of such an approach, the BReal Lab, together with a summary of evaluation results gained from a trial involving students in 5 different countries. Finally, the chapter concludes by reflecting on the issues raised and speculates on possible future directions that work on mixed-reality MUVEs might take.