VIRTUAL REALITY CASE-BASED REASONING:
A FRAMEWORK FOR COMPUTER-BASED INSTRUCTION

Leonardo Rocha de Oliveira

Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul

Industrial Engineering Department

Porto Alegre, RS, 90040-020, Brazil

leorocha@ppgep.ufrgs.br

 Abstract

This paper presents a Computer-Based Training (CBT) tool that relies on an integration of Virtual Reality (VR) and Case-Based Reasoning (CBR). It is an application that handles past cases represented in Virtual Reality (VR) and aims at providing a framework for the development of computer-based instructional applications. A prototype has been developed as part of this research and is used to provide examples on the issues discussed. The application holds past experiences of experts in the inspection of health & safety regulations of scaffold structures. Each case in the prototype contains a virtual scaffold structure and tasks involved for its inspection. The instructional activity happens by reviewing tasks on scaffold inspection to either increase or evaluate users' skills. The prototype development methodology is presented explaining the process of case design in VR. A training session on the inspection of scaffold health & safety regulations is presented and  conclusions are drawn.

Keywords: case-based reasoning, computer-based training, case-based teaching, intelligent tutoring systems, virtual reality.