| Abstract |
This paper presents new results concerning experimentation focused on the theme of environmental sustainability, carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic, using a virtual world based on the 3D platform Opensimulator. An educational environment, the "Sustainability Hub" island, has been developed where students and teacher find paths relative to exploitation of georesources, climate change, environmental sustainability indicators, and circular economy. Four schools located in different Italian regions were involved, with a total of 650 students, with ages between 11 and 13 years. Students have been divided into two groups, each experiencing the virtual world using a different mode. Tests and questionnaires have been administered to evaluate the acquisition of knowledge about sustainability topics as well as the users' level of interest for the activity and topics. From the analysis of data obtained from the teachers and students involved, we find that this virtual word was a useful and effective tool to teach sustainability in distance learning mode and, especially during COVID-19 lockdowns, it allowed the acquisition of new knowledge and interest among students. The need of a desktop or laptop personal computer, rather than tablets, and/or sometimes poor bandwidth of home internet connections, was found to be an important issue to consider for the development of distance learning activities. |