Date of Award
5-1-2012
Degree Name
Master of Science in Education
Department
Workforce Education and Development
First Advisor
Pense, Seburn
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the baseline data for the incorporation of virtual reality in agriculture mechanics. The study was a census survey of the 320 agriculture education programs within the state of Illinois. This study first sought to establish four main goals: 1) identify the demographics of the instructors and the students that were enrolled in the course; 2) the average cost to run a welding program per student per hour; 3) the amount of savings to the welding budget there would have to be for the instructors to consider the use of a virtual reality welding simulator; 4) the willingness of the instructors to incorporate different forms of technology into the welding curriculum. This study found there was a positive opinion about virtual reality and similar technologies but, the cost of the virtual reality welding simulator needed to dramatically decrease in order to incorporate them into agriculture mechanics and be a cost-effective form of training.
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