Developing spatial skills in a Virtual Reality environment for carpentry apprentices

Carpenters in the workplace often build constructions based on technical drawings. To do so, they are required to translate back-and-forth between 2D and 3D representations. Nowadays, students in carpentry encounter difficulties in reading technical drawings in vocational education through deficientspatial insight. In collaboration with stakeholders, a Virtual Reality application was designed aimed at construction tasks to support students in developing spatial skills. The present study investigated how this VR application in combination with computer tasks was perceived by students and how it contributed to student performance and motivation. In a small-scale exploratory study, video data from five carpentry apprentices and two instructors, and a questionnaire among 25 apprentices were evaluated. The results reveal that the application was easy and fun to use. Students were involved in spatial orientation and showed an increasing speed in completing the task. We conclude that the VR application is an accessible, motivating, and time-efficient way of acquiring both job-related construction knowledge and spatial insight.