Historical Sites Virtual? Approaches to the Didactic Analysis of Virtual Excursions to Out-of-School Places of Learning Exemplified by goAIX!

Abstract Virtual excursions to historical sites – both those that still exist and those that no longer exist – are booming, especially in historical-cultural touristic contexts, but increasingly also in history teaching. While various possible uses for such applications have already been discussed in detail in history didactics, the question of the fundamental relationship between historical sites and its virtual implementation seems to have been left out so far. This article aims to fill this gap against the background of the social science teaching-learning opportunity of RWTH Aachen University goAIX! - Exploring Historical Sites. Since 2016, goAIX! has been using virtual excursions both in university teaching and in school contexts in various combinations with physical site visits. Their respective logics are first presented in an overview, before an exemplary use of VR excursions in the teaching context is presented using the example of a goAIX! module. Based on the reactions of the participating learners to the virtual exploration, which were collected during the project evaluation, criteria for the analysis of VR recordings of historical places are finally developed and put up for discussion, which are based on the categories of plausibility for historical narratives according to Jörn Rüsen.