Categorization of the benefits and limitations of immersive environments for education

  • Polina Häfner  
  • Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, IMI, Kriegsstr. 77 , Karlsruhe, 76133, Germany
Cite as
Häfner P. (2020). Categorization of the benefits and limitations of immersive environments for education. Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Modeling & Applied Simulation (MAS 2020), pp. 154-159. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46354/i3m.2020.mas.020

Abstract

Virtual and augmented reality have become attractive technologies for application in educational setups. Hence, instructional designers are still struggling with the questions of whether immersive technologies can help to solve their current instructional problems and of how they should be incorporated into the educational program. This paper should bring us a step closer to the solution of this issue by proposing an extensive categorisation of the advantages and disadvantages of VR and AR technology for education. It was iteratively developed based on literature review, expert interviews and user reports. Each benefit category was assigned to the technological features such as multimodality, interactivity and visual-spatial representation that may bring forth the wished benefits. Additionally, some examples serve for a better understanding of how the benefits manifest themselves.

References

  1. Aardema, F., O’Connor, K., Côté, S., and Taillon, A. (2010). Virtual reality induces dissociation and lowers sense of presence in objective reality. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 13(4):429–435. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 140 Huguenot Street, 3rd Floor New Rochelle, NY 10801 USA. 
  2. Akpan, I. J. and Shanker, M. (2017). The confirmed realities and myths about the benefits and costs of 3d visualization and virtual reality in discrete event modeling and simulation: A descriptive meta-analysis of evidence from research and practice. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 112:197 – 211 
  3. Ausburn, L. J. and Ausburn, F. B. (2004). Desktop virtual reality: A powerful new technology for teaching and research in industrial teacher education. Journal of Industrial Teacher Education, 41(4):1–16. ERIC.
  4. Bernert-Rehaber, S. and Schlemminger, G. (2013). Immersive 3d-technologien optimieren das
    fremdsprachenlernen:„eveil-3d–lernen in virtuellen welten “. Babylonia, 3:44–49.
  5. Bowman, E. L. and Liu, L. (2017). Individuals with severely impaired vision can learn useful orientation and mobility skills in virtual streets and can use them to improve real street safety. PLoS one, 12(4). Public Library of Science.
  6. Dede, C., Salzman, M., Loftin, R. B., and Ash, K. (2000). The design of immersive virtual learning environments: Fostering deep understandings of complex scientific knowledge. Innovations in science and mathematics education: Advanced designs, for technologies of learning, page 413. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers. 
  7. Häfner, P., Dücker, J., Schlatt, C., and Ovtcharova, J. (2018). Decision support method for using virtual reality in education based on a cost-benefit-analysis. In 4th International Conference of the Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education, VARE 2018; Budapest; Hungary; 17 September 2018 through 19 September 2018. Ed.: A. G. Bruzzone, pages 103–112. Dime University of
    Genoa, Rende
  8. Iowa Waste Reduction Center (2019). Virtual paint. https://iwrc.uni.edu/virtualpaint. Accessed: 2019-05-10
  9. Kim, T.-Y. (2013). A situational training system for developmentally disabled people based on augmented reality. IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information and Systems, 96(7):1561–1564. The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers.
  10. Lee, E. A.-L. and Wong, K. W. (2008). A review of using virtual reality for learning. In Transactions on edutainment I, pages 231–241. Springer. 
  11. Mantovani, F. (2001). 12 vr learning: Potential and challenges for the use of 3d environments in education and training. Towards cyberpsychology: mind, cognition, and society in the Internet age, 2(207).
  12. Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia learning. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [u.a.], 2nd ed. edition.
  13. McGee, M. K. (2020). Virtual reality: Real privacy and security risks. https://www.databreachtoday.com/interviews/virtual-reality-real-privacy-securityrisks-i-3221. Accessed: 2020-06-25.
  14. Merchant, Z., Goetz, E. T., Cifuentes, L., KeeneyKennicutt, W., and Davis, T. J. (2014). Effectiveness of virtual reality-based instruction on students’ learning outcomes in k-12 and higher education: A meta-analysis. Computers & Education, 70:29 – 40.
  15. Minocha, S. (2015). The state of virtual reality in education–shape of things to come. International Journal of Engineering Research, 4(11):596–598. Citeseer.
  16. Pantelidis, V. S. (1995). Reasons to use virtual reality in education. VR in the Schools, 1(1):9. Virtual Reality and Education Laboratory (VREL), East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.
  17. Pantelidis, V. S. (2010). Reasons to use virtual reality in education and training courses and a model to determine when to use virtual reality. Themes in Science and Technology Education, 2(1-2):59–70. Klidarithmos Computer Books.
  18. Parsons, S. and Mitchell, P. (2002). The potential of virtual reality in social skills training for people with autistic spectrum disorders. Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 46:430–43.
  19. Radu, I. (2012). Why should my students use ar? a comparative review of the educational impacts of augmented-reality. In 2012 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and  Augmented Reality (ISMAR), pages 313–314. IEEE.
  20. Runde, C. (2014). Head mounted display & datenbrillen. Whitepaper, https://www.vdc-fellbach.de/files/Whitepaper/2014_VDC-Whitepaper_Head_Mounted_Displays_&_Datenbrillen.pdf
  21. Stambolieva, D. M. (2017). Horizont erweitern: Aktives lernen mit virtual/augmented reality. 
    https://hochschulforumdigitalisierung.de/de/blog/horizont-erweitern-aktives-lernen-virtualaugmented-reality. Accessed: 2019-05-10.
  22. Vander Poorten, E. B., Perret, J., Muyle, R., Reynaerts, D., Vander Sloten, J., and Pintelon, L. (2014). To feedback or not to feedback–the value of haptics in virtual reality surgical training. In The Eurographics Association, pages 1–7.
  23. Yuan, S. and Ip, H. (2018). Using virtual reality to train emotional and social skills in children with autism spectrum disorder. London Journal of Primary Care, 0:1–3.