The virtual playground: an educational virtual reality environment for evaluating interactivity and conceptual learning

The research presented in this paper aims at investigating user interaction in immersive virtual learning environments (VLEs), focusing on the role and the effect of interactivity on conceptual learning. The goal has been to examine if the learning of young users improves through interacting in (i.e. exploring, reacting to, and acting upon) an immersive virtual environment (VE) compared to non interactive or non-immersive environments. Empirical work was carried out with more than 55 primary school students between the ages of 8 and 12, in different between-group experiments: an exploratory study, a pilot study, and a large-scale experiment. The latter was conducted in a virtual environment designed to simulate a playground. In this ‘Virtual Playground’, each participant was asked to complete a set of tasks designed to address arithmetical ‘fractions’ problems. Three different conditions, two experimental virtual reality (VR) conditions and a non-VR condition, that varied the levels of activity and interactivity, were designed to evaluate how children accomplish the various tasks. Pre-tests, post-tests, interviews, video, audio, and log files were collected for each participant, and analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. This paper presents a selection of case studies extracted from the qualitative analysis, which illustrate the variety of approaches taken by children in the VEs in response to visual cues and system feedback. Results suggest that the fully interactive VE aided children in problem solving but did not provide as strong evidence of conceptual change as expected; rather, it was the passive VR environment, where activity was guided by a virtual robot, that seemed to support student reflection and recall, leading to indications of conceptual change

Discrete event simulation and virtual reality use in industry: new opportunities and future trends

This paper reviews the area of combined discrete event simulation (DES) and virtual reality (VR) use within industry. While establishing a state of the art for progress in this area, this paper makes the case for VR DES as the vehicle of choice for complex data analysis through interactive simulation models, highlighting both its advantages and current limitations. This paper reviews active research topics such as VR and DES real-time integration, communication protocols, system design considerations, model validation, and applications of VR and DES. While summarizing future research directions for this technology combination, the case is made for smart factory adoption of VR DES as a new platform for scenario testing and decision making. It is put that in order for VR DES to fully meet the visualization requirements of both Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet visions of digital manufacturing, further research is required in the areas of lower latency image processing, DES delivery as a service, gesture recognition for VR DES interaction, and linkage of DES to real-time data streams and Big Data sets

The Road Ahead for State Assessments

The adoption of the Common Core State Standards offers an opportunity to make significant improvements to the large-scale statewide student assessments that exist today, and the two US DOE-funded assessment consortia -- the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) -- are making big strides forward. But to take full advantage of this opportunity the states must focus squarely on making assessments both fair and accurate.A new report commissioned by the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy and Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), The Road Ahead for State Assessments, offers a blueprint for strengthening assessment policy, pointing out how new technologies are opening up new possibilities for fairer, more accurate evaluations of what students know and are able to do. Not all of the promises can yet be delivered, but the report provides a clear set of assessment-policy recommendations. The Road Ahead for State Assessments includes three papers on assessment policy.The first, by Mark Reckase of Michigan State University, provides an overview of computer adaptive assessment. Computer adaptive assessment is an established technology that offers detailed information on where students are on a learning continuum rather than a summary judgment about whether or not they have reached an arbitrary standard of "proficiency" or "readiness." Computer adaptivity will support the fair and accurate assessment of English learners (ELs) and lead to a serious engagement with the multiple dimensions of "readiness" for college and careers.The second and third papers give specific attention to two areas in which we know that current assessments are inadequate: assessments in science and assessments for English learners.In science, paper-and-pencil, multiple choice tests provide only weak and superficial information about students' knowledge and skills -- most specifically about their abilities to think scientifically and actually do science. In their paper, Chris Dede and Jody Clarke-Midura of Harvard University illustrate the potential for richer, more authentic assessments of students' scientific understanding with a case study of a virtual performance assessment now under development at Harvard. With regard to English learners, administering tests in English to students who are learning the language, or to speakers of non-standard dialects, inevitably confounds students' content knowledge with their fluency in Standard English, to the detriment of many students. In his paper, Robert Linquanti of WestEd reviews key problems in the assessment of ELs, and identifies the essential features of an assessment system equipped to provide fair and accurate measures of their academic performance.The report's contributors offer deeply informed recommendations for assessment policy, but three are especially urgent.Build a system that ensures continued development and increased reliance on computer adaptive testing. Computer adaptive assessment provides the essential foundation for a system that can produce fair and accurate measurement of English learners' knowledge and of all students' knowledge and skills in science and other subjects. Developing computer adaptive assessments is a necessary intermediate step toward a system that makes assessment more authentic by tightly linking its tasks and instructional activities and ultimately embedding assessment in instruction. It is vital for both consortia to keep these goals in mind, even in light of current technological and resource constraints.Integrate the development of new assessments with assessments of English language proficiency (ELP). The next generation of ELP assessments should take into consideration an English learners' specific level of proficiency in English. They will need to be based on ELP standards that sufficiently specify the target academic language competencies that English learners need to progress in and gain mastery of the Common Core Standards. One of the report's authors, Robert Linquanti, states: "Acknowledging and overcoming the challenges involved in fairly and accurately assessing ELs is integral and not peripheral to the task of developing an assessment system that serves all students well. Treating the assessment of ELs as a separate problem -- or, worse yet, as one that can be left for later -- calls into question the basic legitimacy of assessment systems that drive high-stakes decisions about students, teachers, and schools." Include virtual performance assessments as part of comprehensive state assessment systems. Virtual performance assessments have considerable promise for measuring students' inquiry and problem-solving skills in science and in other subject areas, because authentic assessment can be closely tied to or even embedded in instruction. The simulation of authentic practices in settings similar to the real world opens the way to assessment of students' deeper learning and their mastery of 21st century skills across the curriculum. We are just setting out on the road toward assessments that ensure fair and accurate measurement of performance for all students, and support for sustained improvements in teaching and learning. Developing assessments that realize these goals will take time, resources and long-term policy commitment. PARCC and SBAC are taking the essential first steps down a long road, and new technologies have begun to illuminate what's possible. This report seeks to keep policymakers' attention focused on the road ahead, to ensure that the choices they make now move us further toward the goal of college and career success for all students. This publication was released at an event on May 16, 2011

Innovating Pedagogy 2017: Exploring new forms of teaching, learning and assessment, to guide educators and policy makers. Open University Innovation Report 6

This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This sixth report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology in The Open University collaborated with researchers from the Learning In a NetworKed Society (LINKS) Israeli Center of Research Excellence (I-CORE). Themes: • Big-data inquiry: thinking with data • Learners making science • Navigating post-truth societies • Immersive learning • Learning with internal values • Student-led analytics • Intergroup empathy • Humanistic knowledge-building communities • Open Textbooks • Spaced Learnin

Virtual Reality in Mathematics Education (VRiME):An exploration of the integration and design of virtual reality for mathematics education

This thesis explores the use of Virtual Reality (VR) in mathematics education. Four VR prototypes were designed and developed during the PhD project to teach equations, geometry, and vectors and facilitate collaboration.Paper A investigates asymmetric VR for classroom integration and collaborative learning and presents a new taxonomy of asymmetric interfaces. Paper B proposes how VR could assist students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in learning daily living skills involving basic mathematical concepts. Paper C investigates how VR could enhance social inclusion and mathematics learning for neurodiverse students. Paper D presents a VR prototype for teaching algebra and equation-solving strategies, noting positive student responses and the potential for knowledge transfer. Paper E investigates gesture-based interaction with dynamic geometry in VR for geometry education and presents a new taxonomy of learning environments. Finally, paper F explores the use of VR to visualise and contextualise mathematical concepts to teach software engineering students.The thesis concludes that VR offers promising avenues for transforming mathematics education. It aims to broaden our understanding of VR's educational potential, paving the way for more immersive learning experiences in mathematics education

Using Immersive Virtual Reality for Student Learning: A Qualitative Case Study

ABSTRACT The prominence of virtual reality (VR) in the educational field has grown in recent years due to increased availability and lower costs. I conducted a global study regarding how pioneering K-12 teachers use VR to engage students in learning activities. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify how and why teachers used VR for student learning. Fifteen educators from five continents participated in the study. They described their initial VR experiences and how these experiences motivated them to pursue ways to implement VR in their disciplinary fields. I used the video conference tool “Zoom” to conduct interviews. Participants described the “spark” of discovery and recognition of VR for learning. They explained measures to obtain permission, approaches to funding, and the implementation process. Participants developed structures for student learning, transformed physical spaces, and invented pedagogies to ensure positive learning experiences. Participants provided optimal immersive experiences by repurposing content and adopting other applications to achieve learning goals. Three levels of incorporating VR for student learning were identified, including: (1) exploration; (2) acquiring and applying disciplinary knowledge; and (3) content creation and interactive problem solving. The quality of headsets dictated the level(s) of implementation. Dewey’s (1923) experiential learning theories as well as the Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge framework (TPACK; Mishra & Koehler, 2006) helped to interpret data. Successful implementation requires collaboration and pedagogical modifications and administrative support. This study highlights the successful methods and practices for others considering the implementation of VR for K-12 student learning. Keywords: TPACK, Dewey, Virtual Reality (VR), Innovation, Experiential Learnin

Physical to Virtual: A Model for Future Virtual Classroom Environments

Virtual reality is a technology that has seen unprecedented growth since the turn of the century with increasing applications within business, entertainment, and educational applications. As virtual reality technologies continue to develops and markets expand, the world may see an increased demand for virtual classrooms: virtual environments (VEs) that students may access through immersive virtual reality technologies to receive guided instruction, conduct simulations, or perform tasks typical in a classroom setting. While many studies document how virtual reality is beneficial to educational processes, there is little discussion on how virtual environments should be architecturally designed. Thus one may hypothesize that physical design strategies translated to virtual environments may have similar results. This thesis investigates virtual environments for education by creating several virtual classrooms embedded within a selective digital twin of the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus. The design of the virtual classrooms was influenced by current architectural trends in classroom design while capturing unique abilities present within a virtual context. A physical teaching module was also designed to create a platform for educators within the university to deliver instruction within the virtual campus

Virtual worlds in Australian and New Zealand higher education: remembering the past, understanding the present and imagining the future

3D virtual reality, including the current generation of multi-user virtual worlds, has had a long history of use in education and training, and it experienced a surge of renewed interest with the advent of Second Life in 2003. What followed shortly after were several years marked by considerable hype around the use of virtual worlds for teaching, learning and research in higher education. For the moment, uptake of the technology seems to have plateaued, with academics either maintaining the status quo and continuing to use virtual worlds as they have previously done or choosing to opt out altogether. This paper presents a brief review of the use of virtual worlds in the Australian and New Zealand higher education sector in the past and reports on its use in the sector at the present time, based on input from members of the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working Group. It then adopts a forward-looking perspective amid the current climate of uncertainty, musing on future directions and offering suggestions for potential new applications in light of recent technological developments and innovations in the area

Implementing Virtual Reality in K-12 Classrooms: Lessons Learned from Early Adopters

Copyright © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. This is the authors' version (post-print) of an article published in Smart Education and E-Learning. This version will be available 2023.06.07 after an embargo period of 24 months .There is very little research on K-12 education outside designated research studies on how teachers use VR for learning. This study addresses gap in research by asking: How did teachers start with VR and how do they use it? We interviewed nine teachers from different primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary schools—who had one to five years of experience with VR—among the first to include VR in their teaching, making them early adopters. All schools used HDMs, but the number, brand, and model varied. VR was used to teach various subjects and topics, but mostly for a limited part of the lesson. Due to the limited number of HMDs, the teaching was often organized as stations, where the students took turns using the HMDs and working on other tasks related to the theme. This requires good planning from the teacher and a certain degree of self-regulation among the students, as the teacher’s eyes and ears are on the student(s) wearing the HMDs. The early adoption of VR sometimes encountered challenges related to technical (e.g., firewalls) or ethical issues (e.g., privacy), but some argued that for innovation to happen, it was necessary to “act first and ask later”.acceptedVersio