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The University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney has developed an innovative tool that is set to transform university education by making immersive virtual field trips (VFTs) both accessible and cost-effective. The tool, known as the Teaching And Learning Immersive Authoring (TALIA), is a groundbreaking digital platform that allows educators to create virtual learning environments with ease, drastically reducing the costs associated with traditional VFT development.
Virtual field trips have long been a valuable educational resource, offering students the opportunity to explore environments such as aeroplane cockpits, emergency rooms, and even remote planetary landscapes. However, the high cost of developing these experiences – up to AU$100,000 per trip – has been a significant barrier to their widespread adoption. Each VFT traditionally required a lecturer to work closely with a team of designers and developers to create a custom virtual environment, a process that was both time-consuming and expensive.
TALIA addresses this challenge by providing an intuitive, user-friendly platform that enables educators to design and deploy their own VFTs without the need for extensive technical training. Developed by UNSW’s Media and Immersive Technologies team, in collaboration with Professor Carol Oliver from the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Education portfolio, TALIA is positioned to democratise access to immersive learning experiences.
The tool leverages digital gaming technology to allow instructors to compile and integrate various digital assets – such as data, images, sound, video, and documents – into a 360-degree virtual environment. Students can then explore these environments, engaging with the content in an interactive and immersive manner.
The development of TALIA is a significant milestone in the field of educational technology. Professor Oliver, who has been a pioneer in the use of virtual field trips since her collaboration with NASA Learning Technologies in 2007, emphasised the importance of reducing costs in order to make these tools more widely available. In the past, the cost of VFTs has been the main deterrent. TALIA’s design allows educators to create VFTs with minimal training and a small time commitment, making it possible to incorporate virtually any type of learning resource into a virtual field trip.
UNSW is currently the only university in the world applying VFTs at the tertiary education level, and TALIA’s development underscores the institution’s commitment to leveraging in-house innovation to overcome previous barriers. According to Professor Oliver, these VFTs are specifically tailored to meet the pedagogical needs of higher education, making them a valuable addition to traditional teaching methods.
In addition to reducing costs, TALIA also promotes equity and inclusion in education. Professor Oliver highlighted that VFTs are not intended to replace physical field trips but rather to supplement them, particularly for students who may be unable to participate in traditional field trips due to work, family responsibilities, or other constraints.
Research supports the educational benefits of Virtual Field Trips (VFTs), showing minimal differences in learning outcomes compared to real field trips. Professor Oliver’s studies highlight their value, demonstrating that VFTs engage students in active problem-solving and enhance critical thinking skills. For instance, in her astrobiology VFTs, students take field notes on a virtual landscape, replicating traditional fieldwork practices. This method not only reinforces critical thinking but also makes the learning experience more resistant to AI automation.
TALIA is already being utilised in several courses at UNSW, including astrobiology, geology, and aviation. It is also being adopted internationally, with institutions such as the University of Auckland, Georgia State University, the University of Edinburgh, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory incorporating TALIA into their curricula. These collaborations have enabled the sharing of visual data across universities, fostering a global educational exchange that further enriches the learning experience.
