Does virtual reality help students learn to use optical measurement techniques?

Virtual Reality has been used in the course 'Optical diagnostics: techniques and applications' at the Applied Physics department of the Eindhoven University of Technology, to allow students to perform experiments in a laboratory without being exposed to potential dangers of lasers. Students learn about the use of lasers in a laboratory and apply knowledge to do this safely in a virtual laboratory environment. Students’ evaluation and interviews showed satisfaction with the use of Virtual Reality in this assignment. As the use of the equipment is very intuitive, all students could start experimenting with the equipment immediately, even those who had no experience with Virtual Reality.