Learning through virtual reality: a preliminary investigation

Abstract

Our understanding of learning through the use of Virtual Reality (VR) is still in its infancy but a small core of work is emerging that is of growing importance. The literature is utilised to derive three design principles that are pertinent to VR systems used for learning. These principles form the basis for the design of a small VR world which was used for teaching a managment technique to students in Higher Education (HE). Thus, this project naturally divided into two stages: first, software was developed for Portuguese HE students to learn the basic concept of apportioning resources subject to constraints, while Stage 2 comprised a formative experiment to test for differences in the learning of the technique. The conclusion was that overall the traditionally taught group faired better, but not statistically significantly better, than the software based group. Issues of enjoyment and learning were also raised. More studies are needed before any generalities can be drawn.