Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) systems offer several learning affordances, that is, characteristics that can elicit learning behaviors promoting learning outcomes in educational contexts. In particular, the immersive and interactive properties of these systems represent a strong opportunity to support the effective learning experiences. The present review aims at mapping IVR systems’ use in K‐12 and higher educational contexts and investigating their effectiveness in facilitating learning in terms of knowledge attainment and retention and motivational outcomes. The synthesis of the reviewed studies (n = 18) show that IVR can support a number of activities and experiences that in turn improve learning and motivate students to fulfill educational goals by eliciting their interest and engagement with the learning materials. The main advantage of IVR seems related to the possibility for users to have first‐hand experiences that would not be possible in the real world, simultaneously offering unique opportunities for experiential and situated learning, as well as promoting students’ motivation and engagement. Despite the promising findings, the reviewed studies present several methodological flaws: non‐randomized trials, small sample sizes, unbalanced samples and non‐validated measures. This in turn makes it difficult to generalize from these results. Future research is needed to investigate the unique opportunities of IVR in education.

中文翻译：

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K-12和高等教育中的沉浸式虚拟现实：实证研究的十年系统回顾

沉浸式虚拟现实（IVR）系统提供了几种学习能力，即可以引发学习行为的特征，从而促进在教育环境中的学习成果。尤其是，这些系统的沉浸式和交互性代表了支持有效学习体验的强大机会。本综述旨在绘制IVR系统在K-12和高等教育环境中的使用情况，并研究其在促进知识获取，保留和激励成果方面的有效性。综述研究的综合（n = 18）表明IVR可以支持许多活动和经验，从而通过激发他们的兴趣和对学习材料的投入来改善学习并激发学生实现教育目标。IVR的主要优势似乎与用户有可能拥有现实世界中无法获得的第一手经验有关，同时为体验式和现场学习提供了独特的机会，并促进了学生的积极性和参与性。尽管有令人鼓舞的发现，但经过审查的研究仍存在一些方法上的缺陷：非随机试验，小样本量，不平衡样本和未经验证的措施。反过来，这使得很难从这些结果中进行概括。需要进一步的研究来调查IVR在教育中的独特机会。