ABSTRACT

Virtual reality (VR) usage is increasing in higher education, yet VR retains significant financial, technological, and time costs. Given these challenges, understanding student perceptions of the legitimacy of educational VR is important. In-class VR was introduced in two semesters with four total face-to-face Geography courses at Arkansas Tech University. Throughout each semester, individual students periodically used the HTC Vive’s Google Earth VR app to virtually visit places relevant to that day’s lecture. The VR video was mirrored to a classroom screen for all students to see. These VR sessions formed parts of many class meetings, in contrast to recent studies that examine educational VR as short-term experiments or out-of-classroom trials. Students were surveyed about their perceptions before and after the semester, and overall student views of classroom VR were positive. Perceptions were similar between students who used VR in class and students who did not. These findings are important as educational institutions continue to invest more time and resources into VR.

摘要

虚拟现实 (VR) 在高等教育中的使用正在增加，但 VR 保留了大量的财务、技术和时间成本。鉴于这些挑战，了解学生对教育 VR 合法性的看法很重要。在阿肯色理工大学，课堂虚拟现实在两个学期内推出，共有四门面对面的地理课程。在每个学期，个别学生定期使用 HTC Vive 的 Google Earth VR 应用程序虚拟访问与当天讲座相关的地方。VR 视频被镜像到教室屏幕上，供所有学生观看。这些 VR 课程构成了许多课堂会议的一部分，这与最近将教育性 VR 视为短期实验或课外试验的研究形成鲜明对比。对学生在学期前后的看法进行了调查，学生对课堂 VR 的整体看法是积极的。在课堂上使用 VR 的学生和没有使用 VR 的学生之间的看法相似。随着教育机构继续向 VR 投入更多时间和资源，这些发现非常重要。