Virtual Worlds in Teaching Archaeology

Digital methods of documentation in research and teaching are becoming increasingly important for archaeology as a material and object-oriented discipline. Local initiatives have emerged at several locations in Europe that use the new digital possibilities of 3D and VR technologies in research and teaching in archaeological disciplines and introduce students to them. So far, however, there has been no networking of these initiatives, which means that synergies cannot be exploited and local initiatives hardly have a major impact.

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The universities gathered in Virtual Worlds have come together to develop and test learning scenarios with 3D data sets and VR environments. In doing so, we can draw on local initiatives, experiences and existing data sets, which are brought together and further developed at European level. The aim is to improve teaching in archaeological subjects through the use of virtual worlds, to enable digital access to cultural heritage and to make it usable, reusable and scalable for creative processes in different contexts.

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Virtual Worlds is the first project in the archaeological sciences at European level that not only uses 3D data sets and VR environments for visualization, but also integrates them into meaningful and reusable learning scenarios. In this way, the project will serve as a best-practice example for the use of innovative technologies and didactic methods to improve teaching and learning in the humanities at universities.

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The 3D data sets and VR environments that are collected, produced and standardized in the project are then made available online under open licenses. This means that they can also be used outside of the project and integrated into various learning contexts outside of Virtual Worlds.