Exploring team-based classroom experiences in virtual reality

Remote classrooms are increasingly taking a bigger role in student learning as the world transitions into a post-COVID era. There is hence an increasing need to explore more avenues to improve the learning experiences in such remote classrooms. To provide an initial understanding of the disparities in learning experiences between virtual reality (VR) and traditional mediums, this paper presents a study with 11 participants in team-based classroom learning tasks across three conditions - face-to-face, video conferencing and VR. The findings highlight several benefits and limitations of VR-based classrooms, e.g., the expressivity of avatars and customizability of learning environments in VR allows for a more personalized experience, but excessive interactivity sometimes lead to distractions. These findings shed light on how VR may be best designed to enhance remote classroom experiences.</p

Immersive Virtual Reality Training of Bioreactor Operations

This paper explores the application of immersive virtual reality (VR) as a training environment for biopharmaceutical engineering processes. An immersive simulation of a real-world industrial bioreactor setup was developed. This allows repeated practice in a safe and contextualized environment and mitigate limited access to equipment for hands-on training opportunities. It is hypothesized that using VR as an authentic context will assist in achieving the learning outcomes of performing operations in industry standard bioreactor setups, and understanding cellular processes. Two preliminary studies were conducted to evaluate the benefits of the VR application. Using pre- and post tests, there were comparable improvements using the VR application when compared to traditional lab lessons. Qualitatively, participants indicated benefits to learning through repeated practice and immersion in a realistic 3D lab environment. The introduction of gamification methods as motivators are areas to be further explored to better integrate students' theoretical and practical understanding compared to traditional approaches