Immersive technology for food science education: digital twin laboratory, safety and experimental modules for practical works
Résumé
It is currently assessed that education can benefit from immersive technology. As a result, teaching practices are changing for good to integrate these technological tools, especially in continuous vocational education and training and adult learning. In the CAP’VR project we developed immersive courses or training for educational purposes in food sciences, more specifically for practical works. First, an immersive digital twin of one of our laboratories was developed associated with a virtual tour module. During this tour, tooltips pop up with dangers addressed by collective protective equipment. Then several security immersive modules allow the students to grasp safety aspects of the work in a research laboratory: protective gear, lab safety sign, etc… In the next step, students go through small safety procedures learning modules with virtual endangerment, one of the strengths of virtual reality being its ability to reproduce dangerous situations in complete safety. Several levels of difficulty are available which can be used as a training before the real practical work session or as an evaluation after the practical work session. Experimental modules are now in development. the chemical synthesis of a food additive (tartrazine) associated with the purity control steps (thin layer chromatography) is already completed. The steps of synthesis are all independent modules that can be used in different fields (chemistry, analysis, food science, process engineering). Thanks to an innovative open-source analytics platform Mimbus Vulcan, we have the possibility to personalize pedagogical paths and exercises adapted to learners and to monitor the progress of each of them in VR: It allows a real time follow-up of the execution of an exercise and a precise analysis of the student’s performance. As perspective, next modules will be developed such as a digital twin of a bioreactor and an HPLC system.