Nuclear Energy Safety Project in Metaverse

This project for learning nuclear energy safety was carried out through e-learning. Problem Based Learning (PBL) was selected as the educational tool and Metaverse as the class environment. The virtual classroom was built on a virtual island of Second Life owned by Nagaoka University of Technology. Three students from two National Technical Colleges in Japan joined the project. A teacher gave the students a short lecture and proposed the problem. Students understood the contents very well and solved the problem through chat-based discussions in Metaverse. Students’ clear and precise understanding, their high activeness of discussion and high interest for the safety of nuclear energy was apparent throughout this successful PBL class project. The results indicate very clearly that this kind of PBL class was obviously possible for actual e-learning in nuclear engineering and engineering education.