Surveying is a fundamental course in the Civil Engineering, Building Construction Management, Geomatics, Geography, Agriculture & Forestry, and Landscape Architecture curricula. Teaching surveying presents several challenges such as students' preparation in mathematics, geometry and trigonometry, limited access to instruments, limited availability to terrains on which to practice, dependency on weather conditions, and need for one-on-one training. This project enhances traditional surveying instruction methods with an engaging, interactive Virtual Environment for Learning Surveying (VELS) that can be integrated into surveying courses as a preparation, revision and assessment tool. The project uses innovative educational technologies that support students learning and lead to effective instructional approaches in the engineering curriculum. The VELS supports mathematical representational fluency and includes realistic virtual terrains and surveying instruments that look, operate and produce results comparable to the physical ones. The VELS solves many of the problems associated with the current surveying instruction; 1) it improves students' representation fluency in math by interconnecting concrete, numeric/symbolic, textual, pictorial, and real-world representations of mathematical, geometry and trigonometry concepts in the context of surveying, 2) provides 24/7 access to surveying equipment and practice exercises, 3) allows for surveying training at distance, 4) provides immediate feedback on student performance, 5) provides on-demand topic-specific guidance, 6) requires less dependency on team members, 7) provides access to standardized virtual equipment, and 8) provides instrument accessibility to students with motor and vision impairment.
