Teaching Renewable Energy Sources Using 3D Virtual World Technology

Virtual Worlds open up new horizons for the learners that were not available before. In this paper, we present a 3D Virtual World developed to assist tutors in teaching and students in learning the domain of Renewable Energy Sources (RES). Several types of power plants and devices such as wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, hydropower turbines and geothermal ponds have been designed and programmed to simulate their operation in the real world. Virtual facilities like classrooms, labs and libraries were created to support training and learning and assist teachers in conducting their courses. The environment provides learners the ability to interact with the 3D objects and constructions, manipulate their parts with the aim to can get a deeper understanding of their functionality. The evaluation study conducted revealed quite satisfactory results.