Immersive Learning Research Network

360° photos can be used to place learners into different environments augmented with additional information in the form of virtual overlays. This way, more information can be provided than usually, resembling context-based augmented reality (AR). Both contextuality and interactivity are important aspects when it comes to AR- and 360° photo-based learning environments. To find out more about the specific impact context and interaction with the learning material have in an augmented 360° photo environment, we conducted an experimental 2 × 2 between-subjects design with the factors context (visible vs. non visible) and interaction (learner vs. system control) with N = 138 participants. We examined variables concerning immersion, motivation and learning outcome. Concerning immersion, we found a large positive main effect of learner control. Concerning motivation, we found positive main effects of context visibility and learner control. For a subfactor of motivation, satisfaction, we found an interaction effect showing a disadvantage of non-visible context and system control in comparison to all other conditions. We found no effects on learning outcome. We discuss the limitations and implications of the study considering the theoretical background.

It is easy to assume that virtual reality will naturally lead to improved learning outcomes, as there is a tendency to view VR, as an exciting new technology, as a “silver bullet” that can dramatically enhance learning. However, several research studies reveal surprising or counter-intuitive findings – for example, when low-immersion media led to better learning outcomes than VR. We provide a systematic review and discuss specific cases in which results were not as expected. Factors that adversely affect learning include novelty effects, VR sickness, low interaction fidelity, cognitive overload, or other environmental or classroom factors. Through this study, we argue that designers and educators can avoid pitfalls by studying the times when VR did not work as expected. We also provide recommendations based upon these findings. In this way, we can gain insights on how to actually obtain desirable outcomes from the new technology.

The teachers’ attention is an important factor in managing a classroom effectively. It affects students’ learning outcomes and is different for novice and experienced teachers. However, teaching classroom management, especially for specialized subjects like computer science where specific equipment is necessary, can be challenging. Moreover, it is difficult to provide real-life training opportunities as lessons cannot be repeated and experimentation time is very limited. This is particularly problematic for novice teachers and teacher students. To address this and support this issue, virtual reality and immersive learning can be used to simulate classroom scenarios and provide (data-driven and personal) feedback to pre-service teachers. In this paper, the subject-specific dimensions of computer science classroom management are discussed and a virtual computer lab for training purposes is proposed. Additionally, the potential of learning analytics to help learners reflect on their experiences is theory-led derived. The developments presented can be used to examine subject-specific differences between computer science and other subjects, as well as cultural differences between teachers around the world and differences between novices and more experienced teachers.

Immersive learning research is a field of study that emphasizes diversity of scholarship and subject areas. This diversity presents a challenge for understanding the breadth and depth of the field of immersive learning, a challenge that led to the Immersive Learning Research Network’s call for the community of immersive learning researchers to develop a conceptual framework supporting a common understanding of this diverse field - The Immersive Learning Knowledge Tree. However, this structure has not had its underlying assumptions validated by the larger, diverse community of immersive learning researchers and practitioners. Thus, we developed, validated, and disseminated across associations of the field a questionnaire for analyzing the assumptions, structure, and relevance of the Knowledge Tree proposal. Early results point towards overwhelming agreement from the community on the premise that the field of immersive learning research is muddled/fragmented, the current knowledge partially disjointed, specifically among different disciplines (Q3), due to its interdisciplinary nature. There are also strong indications supporting the premise that researchers active in the field of immersive learning research desire to combine their efforts with others.

In recent years, with the development of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and extended reality (XR), the use of XR within MOOCs is becoming more feasible. Aside from making simulations possible, XR can support learning in domains where spatial awareness can be critical, such as in architecture. An intermediate technology to XR is 360-degree videos embedded in MOOCs that can be rendered in two-dimensional view (2D) via web browsers or in three-dimensional (3D) view (i.e., volumetric) with the use of a head-mounted display (HMD). When rendered in 3D, a more immersive learning environment may be achieved as the field of view restrictions in 2D format are removed. However, whether the additional dimension can enhance the learning experience, may it be in performance or satisfaction, is yet to be investigated. This study used a short learning module using contents from an existing edX architecture MOOC in a pre-test/post-test randomized mixed methods experiment where learners watch 360-degree videos via a web browser or with an HMD while being observed. Results indicate that while HMD usage may appear to elicit more engagement, the measured learned outcomes between the two groups do not significantly differ. Since purchasing an HMD for online learning is an expense, suggestions for improving the 3D experience were derived from learner interviews. These include better scrutiny of the purpose and alignment of 360-degree video content with the lessons and more robust beta-testing before course release to the public.

As immersive virtual reality (iVR) is gaining popularity, interest from education and educational research is growing likewise. As such, it is of interest to investigate which factors thrive and inhibit acceptance of this iVR technology in education. In this study we investigated the perceptions of 2,640 Flemish secondary education students on iVR as an instructional tool. As a theoretical framework, we adopted the UTAUT2 model extended with the factor of personal innovativeness in the domain of information technology. Students watched a video with several examples of iVR educational experiences. Next, their perceptions on iVR as an instructional method were measured using an online survey. To test the several hypotheses, we applied general linear modelling. The results account for 50% of variance in behavioral intention to use. These findings help to understand which factors contribute to the acceptance of iVR in secondary education and might guide the design of evidence-informed implementation plans by school managers and teachers.

Education and learning continue to evolve as a result of the rapid speed of technological advancement in the 21st Century. The growing presence of emerging technologies increases the potential of an innovative environment that can promote and facilitate learning. The impact of immersive technology in the field of learning has been widely discussed and studied by the scientific community in the first two decades of the 21st Century. This is especially true with the advent of the ambition for the unified and fluid multi-user virtual world - Metaverse and the limiting realities of the COVID-19 pandemic - where new modes of virtual interaction are in the spotlight, including the field of education. The success of VR educational content, especially multi-user educational content, depends, in large part, on how usable and adaptable it is for learning purposes. This study investigates pedagogic and usability principles for effective multi-user VR learning applications based on the Technology Enhanced Learning approach, Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction model and Nielsen’s usability heuristics and analyses survey data collected during multi-user VR content testing. The study used a mixed-methods approach involving multi-user VR environment testing with a group of Higher Education students. This study tested three different VR multi-user learning applications to evaluate them from various pedagogical and usability perspectives and collected survey data to gain a deeper understanding of the students’ experience. This study proposes a framework of pedagogic and usability principles for developing effective multi-user VR learning applications.

The emerging technology of Augmented Reality (AR) is expected to have a significant impact on education. The most frequently studied implementation of this technology concerns applications based on widespread mobile devices. These applications usually enrich the real world with virtual educational multimedia content that users can view, but not interact with. Wearable devices like AR glasses allow users to be better immersed in and more effectively interact with the virtual content since their hands are free for handling controllers or hand tracking. Nevertheless, relevant literature indicates that there is a limited amount of research on teachers’ experience when using interactive educational applications with wearable AR glasses. The aim of this study was to investigate teachers’ experience when using interactive educational applications with AR glasses. The sample consisted of 46 primary and secondary school teachers with previous experience in using mobile-based AR applications. The participants used three interactive applications on the Magic Leap 1 AR glasses for 40–45 min and were then asked to evaluate their levels of spatial presence, simulator sickness, usability, and workload. The results support that the use of educational interactive applications with AR glasses was a positive experience and that this is a promising technology for educational uses.

The purpose of this study was the investigation of teachers’ perceptions towards the use of Augmented Reality Smart Glasses (ARSGs) in their teaching and the pilot testing of a questionnaire regarding the factors that influence the intention to use those glasses. The theoretical framework of the questionnaire was based on the variables of the Mobile Augmented Reality Acceptance Model (MARAM) as well as on the variable of the social influence of UTAUT. The sample consisted of 45 in-service primary and secondary education teachers who interacted with Augmented Reality (AR) applications through the Magic Leap 1 device. The results of this pilot study showed that teachers were positive about viewing the AR with the ARSGs, and that all variables of the model were evaluated positively. In addition, the results showed that further research is needed to enhance Cronbach’s alpha in the intention and facilitating conditions variables. Future research will be re-implemented with a larger sample in order to draw conclusions that are expected to have significant implications to researchers, practitioners, and education policymakers.

Virtual reality (VR) has been widely applied as a promising technology for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, most studies in the literature have been conducted by researchers who are not disabled or autistic, resulting in products that are less user-centered. To address this issue, Project PHoENIX is initiated to gather information from stakeholders, including autistic people, caregivers, and parents, about their needs and preferences when using VR. Throughout the development cycle, a variety of user-centered learning experience design methods and process were employed. To assess the usability and user experience of Project PHoENIX, a formative evaluation with multiple usability sessions was conducted across two phases: Phase I Usability Testing and Phase II Pilot Testing. In this paper, we present the co-design process of Project PHoENIX with autistic stakeholders, followed by the results of a formative evaluation on the VR environments in Project PHoENIX. Multiple usability evaluation methods were utilized in both phases. The quantitative and qualitative findings suggest that utilizing co-design and user experience design methods, Project PHoENIX was designed using an innovative approach and is perceived as a highly usable, relevant, and satisfying VR technology, with the potential to scale to serve a broader community of individuals with autism.

Virtual reality (VR) is believed to be a beneficial medium for teaching and learning. While many researchers are pursuing more advanced VR technologies, devices, or systems to provide users or learners with more immersive and interactive VR learning experiences, many people have not even experienced some basic VR systems. In this paper, we investigated a straightforward question, “How do learners perceive their learning experience in a legacy VR system?” using OpenSimulator to host a VR online orientation. The results indicate that it was many participants’ first-time experiencing VR. Even if the VR system we used might seem outdated using today’s criteria, most enjoyed it very much and felt immersed in the VR world. The results implied that, though advanced immersive VR technology provides a better experience, a legacy VR system such as OpenSimulator may still be helpful in particular learning activities for specific learning populations.

The research areas of the Immersive Learning community cover many different interests and perspectives on teaching and learning with immersive technologies. Based on existing efforts to map the field of research, we gathered 35 participants at the iLRN 2022 conference during an open hybrid workshop. These volunteers formed expert groups focusing on five possible perspectives on Immersive Learning. The expert groups gathered and summarized possible research questions with regards to an “Agenda 2030”, meaning the most intriguing questions that should be addressed during the years to come. We let all participants vote on these research endeavors regarding their academic value and importance for the community. As a results, we gathered a total of 23 ranked questions. These questions were subsumed into ten topics forming a Research Agenda for Immersive Learning 2030 (RAIL.2030).

A growing body of research begins to illustrate how mixed reality simulation (MRS) based on digital puppeteering (e.g., Mursion) may be used to provide practice-based opportunities in teacher education. Ironically, current research of this new technology often uses historic measures and conventional data analytics to measure teacher learning, such as holistic rubrics of qualities that describe an average or overall teacher performance or frequency counts of teaching behaviors. What is missing from the literature are novel approaches to measures, data collection and analyses that leverage the digital data available through MRS to explore new dynamic and responsive measures of teaching. For example, measurement of teacher growth could shift from focusing on teacher performance and behaviors to measuring teacher responsiveness to student variances. Rather than just measuring the extent to which a teacher can implement a specific teaching practice, researchers could examine the extent that the teacher adapted the teaching practice or selected appropriate teaching strategies based on qualities perceived in student responses. Now more than ever, we need innovation in teaching, especially developing teacher capacity to perceive and respond to student diversity in real time as learning unfolds. This study explored possible MRS measures and data analytics that examine teaching as a dynamic process responsive to student diversity. We found that specific elements of simulation design and implementation can generate data that measures indicators of teacher responsiveness to student variance.

This paper discusses and evaluates a self-contained portable multi-user cross-platform Virtual Reality (VR) setup that was devised and configured using off the shelf technologies and devices. This paper exemplifies how some fundamental challenges like those faced in Malawi in relation to technology use, can be addressed, to allow for the use of VR technology as a potential solution to improving the quality of secondary school education in situations where the challenges in question are faced. This paper explains how the proposed VR setup was evaluated, where the results of that evaluation indicate that the proposed portable multi-user cross-platform VR setup is viable and can potentially be used for secondary school teaching. This is a follow-up to previous work that outlined the design and implementation of a VR software application to showcase the capabilities and functionality of this “Synchronous Multi-User Cross-Platform Virtual Reality for School Teachers”, which consisted of using questionnaire data collected from school educators in England and it was part of a larger study. Whilst the challenges addressed are those that are faced in Malawi, the platform has more general applicability to a range of teaching contexts.

Technological advances, changing demands of students and employers as well as the stiff competition among higher education (HE) institutions are leading to the exploration and adoption of innovative learning technologies in HE. The use of immersive technologies for education is rising given their potential to complement current methods of delivering learning content to students. Among the benefits of these technologies to education is their ability to promote active, experiential and higher-order learning. However, what is still unclear to educators is how to measure learning in immersive environments. This paper proposes a framework developed to guide educators through the process of designing and implementing assessments when using immersive technologies. The assessment framework presented in this paper builds upon the principle of Constructive Alignment (CA) and the Evidence-Centered Design (ECD) framework. A qualitative evaluation of the proposed framework was conducted to evaluate how easy it is for educators to understand and use it for assessment design around immersive learning activities. The framework was found to provide familiar and user-friendly assessment design guidelines for educators. Lastly, this paper also presents a suggestion for the application of the proposed assessment framework to the design of assessments for an augmented reality game. It also outlines best practices when considering immersive technologies for assessments in HE.

Social Virtual Reality (VR) or “Metaverse” platforms provide teachers with the opportunity to use educational virtual spaces for both distance learning and face-to-face teaching, to take advantage of its unique learning affordances. However, designing virtual spaces and incorporating them into teaching presents a challenge. Since teachers are typically not around when students use virtual spaces, it is difficult for them to ascertain how the spaces are being used during the classes. This article outlines a project to develop a data-logging and visualization tool for teachers making use of Mozilla Hubs. The tool tracks student behavior and presents the data in 3D as raw data points or heatmaps and only requires a standardized set-up with no need for client or server-side programming, thus allowing teachers with limited programming experience to use it. This framework will be further developed to include more visualization and analytical tools, such as trajectories and clustering, and will be made publicly available upon completion of the development.

Fully immersive virtual reality has been recently used for the creation of virtual museums, art galleries, and other applications related to cultural heritage. While the content of these applications typically has an educational value, it remains difficult to engage users into art and the humanities by only presenting the artworks and their descriptions through an immersive experience. We propose in this paper to better engage users in the analysis of paintings through a serious game based on the principle of wimmelbooks and hidden picture books, e.g., “Where is Waldo”. This serious game provides the user with different art galleries in which the player is asked to search for a piece of painting inside a collection of paintings, engaging the players in the visual analysis of paintings. The pieces of paintings are selected manually, and we also assess the extent to which machine learning may help in defining regions of interest such as faces as potential targets. The evaluation of the approach is a practical example of how serious games can be used for better engaging users into art history in immersive learning.

The Metaverse is the three-dimensional iteration of the Internet, a perpetual open web of persistent, networked environments merging physical reality with digital virtuality. Science Technology Engineering Art Mathematics (STEAM) education bridges two knowledge domains often perceived as disjointed: science and technology with art, humanities and social studies. This paper presents the design and development of a multi-school transdisciplinary STEAM project orchestrated by the University of Patras Science and Technology Museum. The deliverables of the project were analog and digital artifacts produced by K-12 primary and secondary school students on digital literacy and future citizenship. These were presented in an innovative virtual reality exhibition that was open and accessible in a web-based 3D online environment. The study employs an exploratory case study design involving deaf high school students and teachers. Data was collected from observation and semi-structured interviews. Results showed that the exhibition of deaf student creations in a multiuser platform in the Metaverse produced a series of social ripple effects around the students themselves, school peers, with and without hearing difficulties as well as educators. Its main contribution is the practical demonstration of the social affordances of the Metaverse in educational projects for children and adolescents with hearing disabilities.

The development of immersive technologies can offer broader possibilities to future-oriented materials education in Design and Engineering. Augmented reality (AR) is an immersive technology that delivers a variety of information superimposed on top of the physical world via see-through glasses. Incorporating sensorial experiences provided by the physical materials library and the informative benefits of AR technology, an AR materials library comprising the Four-Know framework is proposed. Aside from material information retrieval, this library supplements sensory experience by overlapping the virtual model with specific materials in the real world. After the development of the user interface and AR functionalities, students with design and engineering backgrounds participated in a user test. The results indicated that the proposed design provided positive outcomes. In the future, this AR-based materials library is expected to serve as a design guide for the materials learning community and can be extended to other disciplines in higher education.

Virtual reality (VR) technology has been widely applied in various fields, including entertainment, healthcare and education. In design and engineering education, VR technology shows the potential to improve traditional education practices by enhancing creativity and motivation through immersive learning experiences. With the interactive features and high-quality scenes provided by VR, the students’ learning of 3D modelling in design and engineering disciplines may be highly motivating. This paper aims to develop a 3D modelling gallery based on VR to assist design and engineering students in learning 3D modelling. The system offers two main features, a virtual campus scene and a practice showcase, which allow students to explore and understand the modelling process of 3D models in a virtual environment. The integration of the 3D Modelling Gallery into the curriculum can help deepen students’ understanding of 3D modelling, break the limitations of traditional teaching, and increase students’ learning interest in 3D modelling.

The accessibility of digital systems determines the participation of a large number of people in everyday life. Therefore, it is important to teach this topic to future developers of the said systems. As accessibility can be hard to grasp due to one’s inability to experience the problematic barriers people with disabilities face, Virtual Reality (VR) comes into play. VR technology offers the opportunity to simulate situations encountered by persons with disabilities and enables the possibility of new experiences. To further analyze the suitability of a VR application to teach accessibility, we developed Access to Escape, an Immersive Game-Based Learning Experience for Accessibility Education in Virtual Reality. A first evaluation with 11 participants could show that the VR Escape Room helped to develop a different perspective through the simulated limitation of their senses and sensitize them to the issue of accessibility. The participants reported that they have discovered new connections concerning accessibility. Furthermore, the use of VR was perceived as very enjoyable, especially due to the increase of motivation and the simplification of the topic. Besides that, the results of the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) could show that the participants perceived the VR Escape Room as attractive, stimulating and novel. The evaluation demonstrates that a Game-Based Learning Experience in a virtual environment might lead to cognitive as well as affective learning outcomes. The use of the VR Escape Room in education has the potential to improve learning, especially to raise awareness of accessibility.

There’s significant value in following a systematic methodology in educational research, not only to gain valid and reliable empirical data, but also to determine which interventions meet quality indicators and consistently generate expected results. Looking at Special Education, and in line with the necessity for methodological rigor, specific quality indicators to ensure evidence in educational empirical study designs have been developed. In this sense, digital technologies, and recently, immersive technologies are increasingly being used in educational interventions due to the positive learning outcomes seen in cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains. Nevertheless, the affordances of the technology used in such interventions are hardly considered indicating a research gap worth investigating further. Single subject design seems to support effective instructional interventions because of the unique characteristics of every student with a specific disability. This work introduces Augmented Reality, among other quality indicators, to measure the extent of which the structure of matter is understood by students with Intellectual Disabilities. The empirical study set forth in this paper satisfactorily met all existing quality indicators, in addition to the newly introduced AR technology indicator. Findings showed that the research design of the enriched set of quality indicators increased student motivation and their understanding of abstract Physics concepts. The students with ID acquired targeted physics concepts, as well as inquiry skills thanks to their involvement in a vivid experience. These results point to the contribution of AR technology through its affordances as a new quality indicator among the existing set.

Immersive learning using fully immersive virtual reality (VR) is typically utilized to present 3D objects that cannot be represented easily on a computer screen. In the last few decades, the use of e-books to visualize documents has become prevalent. However, transferring an original document designed to be printed requires extraction of the document’s logical structure. The document must be broken down into fragments of text and images with the extraction of its logical structure. The fragments are then recomposed together to be presented as an e-book. In this paper, we propose a novel paradigm where documents can be presented in their original form without the need to be physically restructured, thanks to VR. With a VR headset, the proposed document visualizer allows users to access, display, and annotate documents. Such a system is particularly relevant for students and scholars in the humanities who investigate ancient documents where the distinct elements composing the document are intertwined. Furthermore, VR technology enhances the accessibility and equity of learning by offering various input modalities.

Virtual reality’s (VR) unique affordances of enabling risk-free and exploratory behaviors [1] pose an unknown variable in its use as a learning environment for science education. In VR science laboratory simulations, do students follow typical safety and behavior norms or do they engage largely in “non-lesson related” behaviors [2]? In addition, VR is touted for increasing student interest and motivation in subjects but how exactly does this happen in these environments? We observed seventy-six 11–18 yr.-olds (N = 76) conduct a chemistry experiment in a VR lab simulation. Observations focused on lab safety behaviors and behaviors typically not exhibited in real-life situations (novel). Results showed that > 75% of students still follow basic safety rules but only 49% conducted cleaning behaviors in VR. Novel behaviors were observed in 51% of the participants. Behaviors most observed were moving around the room with no obvious intent, throwing objects or breaking glassware, and playing with lab equipment. We argue that the existence of these behaviors can be viewed as students expressing their curiosities, an important step in encouraging STEM pursuits. The freedom to engage in this behavior is a clue to the motivational affordances VR can provide. Positive responses were confirmed through individual debrief interviews with the participants.

This research considers the impact of a digital science game that provides immersive experiences in which participants take on the role of a scientist and learn through active engagement with simulated science environments and tools. Wake: Tales from the Aqualab is an immersive web-based middle school science game designed to teach science practices of experimentation, modeling, and argumentation in aquatic ecosystems. This paper describes findings from a study of approximately 250 middle school students who used a beta version of the game over two weeks. A pre-post survey of affective measures found significant gains in student science identity, self-efficacy, and interest. Classroom observations and interviews with students and teachers supported these findings, suggesting that the immersive qualities of the game helped students think of themselves as scientists and engage in authentic science practices, contributing to shifts in students’ attitudes and beliefs about science.

The widespread availability of smartphones facilitates the integration of digital, augmented reality (AR), and tangible augmented reality (TAR) learning environments into the classroom. A haptic aspect can enhance the user’s overall experience during a learning process. To investigate further benefits of using TAR for educational purposes, we compare a TAR and a smartphone learning environment with a traditional worksheet counterpart in terms of learning effectiveness, emotions, motivation, and cognitive load. 64 sixth-grade students from a German high school used one of the three conditions to learn about frog anatomy. We found no significant differences in learning effectiveness and cognitive load. The TAR condition elicited significantly higher positive emotions than the worksheet, but not the smartphone condition. Both digital learning environments elicited significantly higher motivation, in contrast to the worksheet. Thus, our results suggest that smartphone and TAR learning environments are equally beneficial for enhancing learning.

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are important drivers of innovation, yet students are often unmotivated and do not understand why they need to learn these subjects. Virtual reality (VR) and virtual environments are useful tools for conceptual understanding with a high degree of immersion. They enable the creation of engaging and inspiring learning experiences. Additionally, personalization and customization can promote motivated usage and high user acceptability. A customized experience that takes into account the unique characteristics of the player can thus be an essential factor in learning. In this paper, we explore the potential of a customized learning environment to increase students’ motivation in learning physics. We present an AB study with 95 students to evaluate their motivation and experience during the learning process. The results indicate that the learning experience slightly increases when the learning process takes place in a customizable experimental environment.

History education often struggles with a lack of interest from students. Serious games can help make learning about history more engaging. Students can directly experience situations of the past as well as interact and communicate with agents representing people of the respective era. This allows for situated learning. Besides using computer screens, the gameplay can also be experienced using immersive Virtual Reality (VR). VR adds an additional spatial level and can further increase the engagement as well as vividness. To investigate the benefits of using VR for serious games targeting the learning of history, we developed a serious game for desktop-3D and VR. Our serious game puts a player into the role of a medieval miller’s apprentice. Following a situated learning approach, the learner operates a mill and interacts with several other characters. These agents discuss relevant facts of the medieval life, thus enabling the construction of knowledge about the life in medieval towns. An evaluation showed that the game in general was successful in increasing the user’s knowledge about the covered topics as well as their topic interest in history. Whether the immersive VR or the simple desktop version of the application was used did not have any influence on these results. Additional feedback was gathered to improve the game further in the future.

North Uist lies in the Western Isles, at the heart of the vernacular Gaelic community. The area is rich in heritage, with unique archaeological sites accompanied by artefacts, stories, poems, and songs about local legends or contemporary accounts of past events. Many are available in English, but are at their most expressive and authentic in the original Gaelic. Currently, there is a crisis in the vernacular community; decade-on-decade reductions in the numbers of people using Gaelic in their day-to-day lives presents an urgent problem for the community. The recent revolution in the way that digital technologies are being used offers innovative opportunities to preserve the ‘Cultural Landscape’, to make it more widely available, and indeed to contribute to its development. Capturing this requires the representation of the landscape that provides the setting for North Uist’s heritage. Emergent immersive and mobile technologies offer the possibility of integrating digital representations of these elements into the Gaelic medium, with the goal of capturing vernacular interpretation of Uist heritage, ensuring that Gaelic expression is part of emergent media and that the transmission of heritage and language is authentic.

This evaluation study examines the implementation of a desktop virtual reality field trip (dVFT) for public outreach. After experiencing the dVFT, 139 participants completed a survey to examine their immersion, presence, engagement, perceived learning about the local environment, VR design features, and affective learning. The majority of participants reported favorable outcomes regarding all the variables above. No significant differences were found between male and female learners for each of the six constructs. No significant differences were found between adults’ and youths’ perceptions of immersion, presence, and attitudes. Adults ages 19 and older had statistically significant higher mean engagement levels, mean perceptions of learning about the local environment, and VR design features than youth. Our findings support that learning about one’s local environment with a dVFT can have a positive impact on engagement and learning, particularly in public outreach settings.

It is vital that individuals of all ages know what preparations to make prior to a flooding event and what actions to take during an actual flood event. To address this, we have designed and developed a fully functional prototype of a digital game-based learning experience in desktop VR called Flood Adventures to be used in non-formal and informal learning environments. We describe and illustrate the game final prototype as well as the gameful elements designed to promote increased motivation, engagement, and learning during gameplay. This paper presents the results of a usability study conducted with fifteen adults. The responses obtained in the sixteen-item survey were positive. The findings suggest that participants gained knowledge of flooding through gameplay. Feedback collected with four open-ended questions is discussed and players’ recommendations will improve the last iteration of the game.

Virtual reality (VR) technologies are increasingly used in workforce development and training, and studies show they can be effective tools to increase learning of procedural skills, content knowledge, and affective outcomes like confidence. Most studies of VR in education and training, however, have focused on the hardware by comparing learning with VR to other devices in controlled lab experiments. This “black box” approach does not attend to variation beyond the device, such as how learners use an application and the influence of their identity and context on their learning with VR. This study addressed the need for more research on learning with VR in authentic workforce development contexts to better understand how diverse participants use these programs and to what extent their individual characteristics impact their experience. Using data from 1,154 users of a VR-enabled job interview training for individuals affected by the criminal justice system, we assessed variation in how participants used the program and their reported changes in confidence, and estimated associations with device, usage, and learners’ characteristics. We find learners’ experience and context is a stronger predictor of increased confidence level than device or usage activities, particularly whether participants are currently or formerly incarcerated. Further, we demonstrate how cluster analysis on log-file data can distinguish learners’ use patterns, a promising method for personalizing feedback and training.

Adaptation to new devices and interfaces is actively studied by user experience and human-computer interaction specialists but is typically neglected by organizers and researchers of corporate training with virtual reality. The study tests how the adaptation phase to technology affects the educational outcome and cognitive load. For the study, 102 people (35.3 ± 11.2 years old), including students and working managers, were trained to give feedback to a colleague. They were divided into three groups: general adaptation, specialized adaptation for communication training, and no adaptation. EEG was used to measure cognitive load score. As a result, it was found that both groups with pre-adaptation showed higher educational outcomes and experienced less cognitive load during the main training. No difference was found between the types of adaptation.

For a sustainable living, it is everyone’s responsibility to do our best at recycling. However, waste classification can be complex. The existing resources may not have sufficient information or dynamic feedback to resolve our everyday garbage disposal. In this work, we design an interactive mobile Augmented Reality (AR) application, Educational Recycling Assistant (ERA), to educate people in doing sound day-to-day waste management. ERA utilizes dynamic object detection and provides in-situ guidance for proper garbage disposal. A user study was designed and conducted to investigate the effects and the user experiences. We found that the users achieved significantly higher garbage binning accuracy with the ERA app. The participants also improved their recycling and garbage disposal knowledge after using the app, particularly in complex items.

With the increasing integration of electronics, software, and sensors, autonomous vehicles are becoming highly complex, distributed cyber-physical systems. Consequently, these systems are also getting increasingly vulnerable to various cyber-attacks. Nevertheless, – and despite its great need, – cybersecurity of automotive systems needs to be better understood, even by critical stakeholders. This paper addresses this problem through an immersive virtual environment for exploring security vulnerabilities in automotive systems. Our approach enables the use of VR technologies to provide a comprehensive environment for non-experts to perform hands-on exploration of security attacks and understand the implications of these attacks. We demonstrate our platform in exploring and training users in attacks on automotive ranging sensors.

Self-regulation of learning (SRL) plays a decisive role in learning success but characterizing learning environments that facilitate development of SRL skills constitutes a great challenge. Given the growing interest in Immersive Learning Environments (ILE), we sought to understand how ILE are built with attention to SRL, via a literature review of pedagogical uses, practices and strategies with ILE that have an explicit focus on SRL. From a final corpus of 25 papers, we collected 134 extracts attesting use of ILE for SRL. We classified and mapped them using the Beck, Morgado & O’Shea framework and its three dimensions of the immersion phenomenon: system, narrative and challenge. There is a predominance of uses of ILE for SRL aligned with Challenge-based immersion: Skill Training, Collaboration, Engagement, and Interactive Manipulation and Exploration. In contrast, uses aligned with System-based immersion (Emphasis, Accessibility, Seeing the Invisible) were not identified. There were few cases of use of Narrative-based immersion. Uses combining the three dimensions of immersive had residual prevalence. We concluded that there is greater tendency in studies of SRL in ILE to enact active roles (aligned with the Challenge dimension of immersion). The low prevalence of Narrative immersion and System immersion evidence gaps in the diversity of pedagogical uses of ILE to develop SRL, which indicate opportunities for research and creation of innovative educational practices.

Digital twins (DT) technology has advanced and is gaining momentum of applicability in different contexts. The metaverse enables immersive experiences that integrate the real world with the digital. Given the importance of DT in the metaverse, this article seeks to review the literature (between 2018–2022) on the articulation of DT, metaverse, and learning, and propose a conceptual framework towards Education 5.0. The review indicates few works in this regard and specifically in Latin American countries the research and application in educational contexts is insufficient. There is an interest in defining frameworks and articulating with other extended reality technologies. The possibilities offered by DT and the metaverse are wide, and that is why it is necessary to reduce the gap in this regard, with more research, projects, dissemination, and agreements. This study contributes to the investigation and projection of the DT, metaverse in learning scenarios, as well as to continue delving into frameworks or models under the Industry/Society 5.0 approach.

Virtual Reality environments have been used to build empathy in different contexts. However, research on empathy-driven virtual reality experiences for building empathy with migrants is still in its childhood. In this paper, we present the results of a comparative study between two virtual reality environments that show stories about migrants in Colombia (South America). In total, 47 university students participated in this study and a self-reported instrument was used to collect information about emotional empathy, cognitive empathy, enjoyment and perceived ease of use. The results suggest that virtual reality improves emotional empathy but not cognitive empathy. In particular, students of psychology show higher levels of emotional empathy than students of engineering. Moreover, enjoyment and ease of use are higher in immersive VR environments to build empathy when compared to less immersive VR environments.

Immersive augmented reality, in practical terms, is a real-time, immersive processing experience which bind together elements of real life with the images presented. The study is a systematic literature review that aims to analyze the main methods and projects for the development of virtual learning environments (VLEs), especially in STEM disciplines, with immersive scenarios in the field of distance higher education. The analyzed scientific productions underwent revision on the search strings, which presented a high growth in the application of Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality and Extended Reality in education. The studies revealed that the use of Immersive Augmented Reality in education is able to increase students’ motivation and interest in studies, mainly due to the teaching and learning environment becoming more dynamic. Additionally, it enables students in the immersive environment to interact and achieve effective learning.