971426VFTaaS – Virtual Field Trips as a ServiceClosedSmall Business Research InitiativeInnovate UKVirtual Field Trips as a Service Hundreds of thousands of students benefit from science-related field trips every year, particularly in the areas of geography, biology, geology and environmental science. These trips are highly valued by students and educators, and are vital to give students the skills and knowledge to meet learning objectives – yet they are declining in number and frequency. Schools, colleges and universities are facing increasing challenges in providing such trips, including the financial cost, educator time, and health and safety issues. Three-dimensional (3D) Virtual World technology has been used in support of education for over a decade, ranging from virtual history to paramedic training. However technical, commercial, usability and social challenges have always limited its adoption. Issues have included technical concerns from school and university IT departments, privacy issues, the lack of ready-to-go content, and the poor reliability of open-ended multi-user virtual environments. This project aims to develop a national Virtual Field Trip Service, a Software-as-a-Service for virtual field trips, bringing the benefits of virtual worlds to educators and students in a very specific, managed and focused way. The service will allow groups of students to viscerally experience a wide variety of learning locations within a multi-user 3D avatar-driven environment. Drawing on a prototype virtual field trip - Virtual Skiddaw, already developed by Daden for The Open University – the service will evolve into a valuable national (and potentially international) resource to support and deliver field-trip-based science education via the Web, PC/Mac and Tablet computers. We will use game-based technology to create a library of virtual field trips covering multiple sites in the UK and abroad (and even off planet, such as a trip to Mars), and more importantly the pedagogic and commercial frameworks to enable educators to contribute new sites, and new learning experiences on existing sites. The result would be improved engagement and attainment levels across environmental science, related STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), and even humanities disciplines, in schools and Tertiary education.