Investigating the Effectiveness of Desktop Virtual Reality for Teaching and Learning of Electrical/Electronics Technology in Universities

Virtual Reality: A Tool for Improving the Teaching and Learning of Technology Education

“…Virtual reality can be used to simulate a real environment for training, education and an imagined environment for interaction [9]. Virtual reality proved effective when used to augment physical facilities for learning in many fields, like teaching architecture [11]; teaching physics [12]; welder training [13]; teaching painting [14]; teaching physical education [15][16][17][18]; training in fire safety [19]; teaching safety rules [20,21,22]; teaching electric power supply systems [23]; teaching biology [24]; and teaching electronic circuit construction [3], among many others. In virtual reality, students can work at their own pace to master the skills needed, get periodic feedback and have the opportunity to correct their mistakes without loss of materials, damage to equipment and injury to human beings and materials [25].…”

“…By doing so, learning of technology education may become a more interactive process, playful and experimental-like the action-oriented approach of learning. The fondness of young people on computer games gave credence to the adoption of virtual reality as an educational tool [3,28,29] for teaching and learning of technology education.…”

“…The first way involves a traditional desktop set-up. This form of virtual reality is called desktop, fish tank [30,31] or simply non-immersive virtual reality [3] and used interchangeably in this study. Desktop virtual reality is presented on an ordinary computer screen and is usually explored by keyboard, mouse, wand, joystick or touch screen [32,33].…”

“…They lacked the applied technical skills necessary for solving problems and enhancing business productivity and knowledge required by industry. Therefore, they cannot take advantage of available employment opportunities; neither can they create employment, due to gross skill deficiency [3]. Low performance of candidates on terminal examinations is symptomatic of low quality.…”

“…Challenges of attaining quality TVET programmes have been discovered to include lack of required TVET facilities, poor funding of TVET programmes and the use of obsolete facilities. Inadequate funding may have been indicted in the poor infrastructural support needed to drive quality delivery of TVET courses [3]. This limitation frustrates the integration of entrepreneurship and practical skills in TVET programmes especially in developing countries.…”