A Model for Understanding How Virtual Reality Aids Complex Conceptual Learning

TLDR

Virtual reality designers have many ideas about how VR can facilitate learning, but little evidence exists on which features provide the most leverage or how to tailor them to different learning contexts, especially given the complex interplay of concepts, learner characteristics, and interaction experiences. The study aims to identify, use, and evaluate VR affordances to support mastery of complex, abstract concepts through the Project Science Space initiative. The authors develop a general model that maps how VR features interact with learning concepts, learner traits, and experiential factors, and they apply this model to guide the design and assessment of immersive VR experiences. Their work reveals an emerging understanding of how VR features and contextual factors jointly influence the learning process and outcomes for complex conceptual material.

Abstract

Designers and evaluators of immersive virtual reality systems have many ideas concerning how virtual reality can facilitate learning. However, we have little information concerning which of virtual reality's features provide the most leverage for enhancing understanding or how to customize those affordances for different learning environments. In part, this reflects the truly complex nature of learning. Features of a learning environment do not act in isolation; other factors such as the concepts or skills to be learned, individual characteristics, the learning experience, and the interaction experience all play a role in shaping the learning process and its outcomes. Through Project Science Space, we have been trying to identify, use, and evaluate immersive virtual reality's affordances as a means to facilitate the mastery of complex, abstract concepts. In doing so, we are beginning to understand the interplay between virtual reality's features and other important factors in shaping the learning process and learning outcomes for this type of material. In this paper, we present a general model that describes how we think these factors work together and discuss some of the lessons we are learning about virtual reality's affordances in the context of this model for complex conceptual learning.