Post-pandemic e-learning: a pre-protocol to assess the integration of mobile VR and its effect on VARK learning styles

Abstract

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in an abrupt but accelerated shift to e-learning worldwide. Education in a post-pandemic world has to amalgamate the advantages of e-learning with important pedagogical goals associated with in-person teaching. Although various advanced technologies are present at our fingertips today, we are still unable to use their full potential in teaching and learning. In this regard, mobile VR technology is both cost-efficient, versatile and engaging for students. Developing countries have more smartphone users than developed countries, implying that developing countries, like Malaysia, should utilize mobile or cellphones more significantly. With that in mind, we propose here a pre-protocol to investigate learner motivation and levels of engagement for e-learning with smartphone-integrated VR, based on their VARK (Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, Kinesthetic) learning styles. Proposed methodology: This study intends to use a minimum sample of 30 students from the same age group under the K-12 (particularly grade 9-12) belonging to STEM curriculum. The Google Cardboard VR set will be used as the prime technology for its affordability, easy build feature and variety of available vendors. A mixed-method (survey and activity log/tracking) for data collection is suggested to find the degree of engagement and motivation of the learners’ learning in the mobile VR-assisted e-learning context. The students will be taught a topic using the mobile VR and then be assessed through simple classroom quizzes to assess how well they grasped the concept. The data collected through activity logs (while teaching the topic in mobile VR) and questionnaires will be mapped to each individual learner and organized in a data repository. Further visualization, analysis and investigation will be performed using Smart PLS, Python or R language. Conclusions: The study aims to provide context for smartphone and software companies to develop technologies that could facilitate learner engagement during the post-pandemic state.

Longitudinal study of teacher acceptance of mobile virtual labs

“…Past literature proposes mobile technologies as cheaper alternatives for educational institutes too. In spite of all these, teachers frequently encounter issues concerning student engagement with teaching materials (Manzoor et al, 2021 ) and BI to use M-VL may not have been strong in the past. COVID-19 has been a strong catalyst for change.…”

Identification of Student Learning Style Preference Profiles in Hybrid Learning Settings: An Essential Consideration for Developing Learning Strategies

“…[34] also reported the demographics of learning modalities that support the results of this study. There is no significant difference in the prevalence of learning modalities among students based on differences in study programs ( [13]; [35]; [36]). These results indicate that learning style preference is a dispositional aspect inherent in individuals and unique that distinguishes another.…”