Investigating Cognitive Engagement in Collaborative Desktop Virtual Reality (VR) Statics Activities Based on ICAP Framework

Abstract

This work-in-progress research paper investigates students' cognitive engagement in collaborative virtual reality (VR) statics activities. The use of VR in engineering education is increasing with the advance in technology. To maximize the affordance of the VR for engineering education, it is important to understand how active learning enfolds in the VR environment since the level of student engagement during active learning is a vital indicator for the effectiveness of the learning environment. Using content analysis, this study investigates the modes of cognitive engagement of students working collaboratively to solve engineering problems in a VR learning environment. The video-recorded collaboration and the transcribed verbal interaction of the students in the VR learning environment were analyzed based on the Interactive-Constructive-Active-Passive (ICAP) framework. The analysis coded the patterns of the observed cognitive engagement based on the video recording and transcripts of the groups' conversation at each phase of the task. The analysis revealed that the active and constructive modes dominated the students' conversation while the interactive mode was the least observed mode of cognitive engagement during the task. The implications of the findings for further research and practice are discussed.