ABSTRACT
Virtual Reality (VR) is becoming increasingly popular in domains such as tertiary education and industrial training. For prospective mining engineers, a comprehensive understanding of complex 3D processes is crucial but is difficult to convey in traditional ways. The benefits of VR are the possible direct 3D immersion into locations that are remote, too costly to visit and/or unsafe. To improve future graduate education, an informative and interactive underground VR environment is being developed by RWTH Aachen University and TalTech University, called the VR-Mine. It is based on the concepts of blended learning, gamification and flipped classroom, and focusses on the topics health and safety, and principles of underground mining. Furthermore, it could help increasing the industry’s health and safety standards with specialised training in safe environments. The vision of the project is to create a comprehensive VR mining environment where all process-related aspects of a mine’s life can be explored.
