Learning physics with virtual environment
Rosalino Rodríguez Calderón
Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias
Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Morelia,
Morelia, Michoacán, México
rosalino@tec.mx
Abstract— This article describes the creation of virtual
environments and their use for the teaching of non-tangible or
abstract concepts that are addressed in the courses of Electricity
and Magnetism, in undergraduate programs. With this proposal,
students can immerse themselves in virtual and interactive
environments for the learning of concepts related to Electric
Charge, Electric Field and Power Lines. In addition, you can
interact with the elements of the environment and observe what
happens when you change parameters or variables of it. We
experimented with a group of students from the Tecnologico de
Monterrey Campus Morelia in order to evaluate the simulator.
From results it was observed that this tool helps the student to
learn concepts that are non-tangible. In addition, given the total
immersion in the virtual environment, the student focuses his
attention completely on the activity, improving his learning.
Keywords— Virtual Reality, Electricity and Magnetism,
Immersive Learning, Physics
I. INTRODUCTION
Virtual reality (VR) is the representation of a concept that
is closest to and faithful to the original, to the point of being
equivalent; they can be tangible and common concepts of real
life, or intangible or even abstract elements. The clearest and
most common way to show virtual elements today is through
the generation of computer generated images that simulate
spaces in three dimensions [1, 2].
An environment is all the conditions that surround an
individual, ranging from the physical space, to the aromas,
sounds, emotional sensations and other elements that that
environment generates.
The creation of virtual environments aims to represent an
environment in a virtual way, allowing the individual to enter
this environment and have the feeling of being part of a
nonexistent environment that has been represented in a virtual
way. The more elements of the environment are represented
and the more faithful they are to the real elements, the more is
the feeling of being part of that virtual environment. This has
generated a large number of applications that range from
entertainment, teleworking, training, medicine and education
[3].
The course of Electricity and Magnetism is a basic level
subject that has the intention of developing in the student the
ability to use the electrical and magnetic interactions of the
loads in the operation of simple devices and the knowledge of
electricity and magnetism to deepen in the different disciplines
of engineering [4].
978-1-7281-1666-2/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
Miguel Ángel García Ruíz
Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias
Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Morelia,
Morelia, Michoacán, México
garcia.ruiz.miguel@tec.mx
The present article shows the development of virtual 3D
scenarios for topics of the Electricity and Magnetism course in
order to facilitate the learning of its contents, supported by
multimedia technology to generate virtual reality scenarios.
II. ANTECEDENTS AND JUSTIFICATION
Within education, virtual environments have allowed the
generation of virtual classrooms that grant the formation of
groups of students and teachers who remotely work and
communicate in real time, and even simulating physical spaces,
thus representing real classrooms. Currently, virtual reality is
being studied in subjects such as anatomy, mathematics,
automation, chemistry, languages, biology, history and
medicine [5-7].
There are subjects whose understanding is difficult because
they contain topics in which one cannot visualize what is
happening, as in the case of the course "Electricity and
Magnetism". This limits and hinders the understanding of
these, leaving learning gaps in the students. As a consequence,
discouragement and apathy are generated when deepening the
course contents.
"Virtual Environments for the Learning of Physics"
consists of the creation of virtual and interactive environments
for obtaining knowledge of abstract topics of the course of
Electricity and Magnetism whose theory is difficult to
visualize, as it is the case of Electric Charge, Electric Field and
Lines of force. The student through virtual reality glasses can
dive into this virtual environment; in addition to interacting
with the elements that are inside and observe what happens
when you change some parameters or variables. This
innovation tool allows the student to make an immersion in the
very concept of the revised topic.
III. PROBLEM STATEMENT
Knowing the impact that the incorporation of virtual reality
entails in the course of Electricity and Magnetism of the
Tecnologico de Monterrey Campus Morelia.
Formulation of experimentation [8]. Does virtual reality
motivate the learning of course content? Is the understanding
of the topics facilitated with the support of virtual reality?
 IV. DEVELOPMENT
For the experimentation, the subjects are selected from the
course of Electricity and Magnetism: Electric field, and
Coulomb's law. Initial topics of the course and foundation for
the rest. With the support of the learning objectives, 3D models
are made and the functionalities that they must have. These
developments are generated with the support of the Maya and
Unity software. In this way, there are two virtual learning
environments, in Fig. 1 the menu is shown from which the
student selects the topic to work with.

A. 3D Virtual Stage
For all cases, a virtual stage is presented with a set of point Fig. 2. Disposition of charges
charges, positive and negative, scattered encouragingly in a
virtual workspace, see Fig. 2.
Coulomb law. The user must select a pair of charges and
dependent on the type, as well as the separation between them
are displayed arrows indicating the phenomenon according to
Coulomb's law, as shown in Fig. 3.
Electric field. For this scenario, the user selects a load type,
at the center surrounded by points (test loads). Subsequently, a
point is chosen. So the electrical influence of the charge in the
space is shown, as shown in Fig. 4.
Since it is an educational technology of total immersion, all
scenarios have sounds according to them and that improves the
experience

B. Virtual Environment
3D scenarios are an important part of the virtual Fig. 3. Coulomb's Law for opposite charges
environment, but it is not the only necessary thing; for this
innovation to be complete, a computer, Oculus VR glasses [1],
hearing aids, sensor and a control are needed, as illustrated in
Fig 5.

Fig. 4. Electric field

Fig. 1. Thematic menu

Fig. 5. Part of the virtual environment
V. CASE STUDY
The experimentation was conducted in the course of
Electricity and Magnetism of the August-December 2017
semester, involving fourteen students.
The consecutive process was:
a) Presentation of the different virtual scenarios and use
rules.
b) Individual concept practice: Coulomb Law and Electric
Field through technological innovation.
c) Experience evaluation
In Fig. 7 a student is exercising the concept of electric field,
in this same image the teacher and classmates can follow up on
what she is doing through a projection or monitor, see Fig. 7.
Fig. 6. Students experimenting
Fig. 7. Students watching the development of their partner
A. Results
As an instrument for gathering information from the
experiment, a survey is applied, using the Google Forms tool
[8], with eight multiple-choice questions. Table 1 shows the
questions, as well as the indicators for analysis, which are
described below:
Experience. Questions to measure the motivation of the
student after experimenting in Virtual Environments.
Content Strengthening. Questions to measure the impact on
student learning after experimenting in Virtual Environments.
On analyzing the results of Table 1, it is observed that the
use of virtual environments as an educational technology for
the Electricity and Magnetism course improves the learning
experience, in addition to facilitating the strengthening of
knowledge. The above is based on the fact that a high
percentage of the participants in the experiment believe that:
• Virtual environments make learning more interactive,
dynamic and interesting.
• Virtual environments can facilitate the learning of topics of
Electricity and Magnetism.
• This educational technology would motivate you to learn
and deepen your knowledge on your own.
• They would like to use virtual environments in other
courses.
 TABLE I. SURVEY RESULTS VI. CONCLUSIONS
As a result of the experimentation, it is concluded that
Question Indicator Result students consider relevant and motivating the use of virtual
environments for learning the content of the Electricity and
Virtual reality can 92.9%
Magnetism course.
make your learning totally agree
more interactive, Experience It is observed that this type of innovation helps learning
dynamic and 7.1% because it makes tangible abstract concepts that are difficult to
interesting. agree imagine. In addition, given the total immersion in the virtual
environment, the student focuses his attention completely on
You would the activity, thus generating meaningful learning.
recommend using 100%
Experience The results are very encouraging, despite this, more
virtual reality in other totally agree
experimentation is required to solidify them, mainly to measure
subjects. the impact on learning. That is, to be able to compare between
57.1% traditional learning and learning with this technological
How likely is it that
totally agree innovation.
you study on your
Experience
own using this Currently, work is being done on the development of the
35.7%
technology. other two scenarios: Electric field lines and Electric potential.
agree
Also, in the design of the experiment to quantify the learning
64.3 %
This innovation is with this technology.
totally agree
friendly and easy. As future work, the virtual models will be the basis for the
Experience
35.7% construction of a virtual reality simulator that will explore the
agree effects in particle arrays.
Virtual reality can 78.6%
facilitate the learning totally agree
of the Electricity and Experience ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Magnetism course 14.3%
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial and
subjects. agree
the technical support of Writing Lab, TecLabs, Tecnologico de
This type of Monterrey, Mexico, in the production of this work.
50%
educational totally agree Also are grateful for the financial support granted by the
Content
technology can help Tecnologico de Monterrey 2016 NOVUS initiative for the
Strengtheni
you deduce relevant 42.9% development of the project. As well asto all Campus Morelia
ng students who supported and contributed to the development
information about the agree
subject in question. and testing of it.
You are likely to Special thanks to Professor Georgina Gaytán Zuno for her
64.3%
share your invaluable help with translation.
totally agree
conclusions about a Content
topic with your Strengtheni 28.6% REFERENCES
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