Who benefits and who doesn't in virtual reality learning: An experimental study comparing two types of school

Abstract

The findings of media comparison studies examining the efficacy of using immersive virtual reality (IVR) in education have been inconclusive. Some studies have suggested that immersive virtual environments (IVE) facilitate learning; other studies have reported similar or even lower learning effects in IVR than in more traditional educational settings. To expand upon earlier research, the present study combined a media comparison approach with an exploration of how learner characteristics might influence the impact of IVR. In the experiment, 262 students from two distinct types of lower secondary schools—elementary school, which is a type of comprehensive school, and multi-year gymnasium, which is a selective academic school—received a lesson on topography and contour line interpretation using either an IVE or a PowerPoint (PPT) slideshow. To measure the extent to which the students were able to apply the lesson knowledge when working with maps, a transfer test was conducted before the lesson, immediately after its completion, and again one month later. Along with the transfer test, a spatial reasoning test was administered to the students. The results showed that while the type of school had an impact on student learning gains, there was no clear benefit of IVR-based instruction over PPT instruction. More specifically, the multi-year gymnasium students had higher scores than the elementary school students already in the pre-test, and they also demonstrated higher learning gains. Conversely, the elementary school students did not show any statistical improvement in their learning outcomes, regardless of the learning environment. The present study is in line with the recommendation formulated by Buchner and Kerres (2023) for comparative research on augmented reality in education—to move research from the phase of examining whether IVR learning works to the phase of examining the questions of when and how IVR learning works. We argue that examining the influence of learner characteristics and variables describing their academic background is crucial for comprehending the potential of IVR as a teaching tool.