- 28 undergraduate students
- Fourth semester
- 14 male, 14 female
- Students at a university in Denmark

VR Simulation: Subjects

- Topics: Photosynthesis, Biodiversity, Food Webs
- 3 lessons presented in VR or video format including laboratory work, fieldwork, reading theory from a text, problem-solving
- All students also had lectures, fieldwork, laboratory work
- Simulation and Video were identical and lasted approximately 30 minutes

VR Simulation: Topics and Materials

- Students randomly assigned to one of two conditions
- Condition 1: iVR
- Condition 2: Video Recording of iVR simulation

VR Simulation: Conditions

- Pre-test of baseline knowledge
- Post-test of knowledge delivered immediately after each lesson
- Post-test of knowledge at 2 month follow up
- Likert Scale of Affect measuring intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, perceived learning, enjoyment
- Affect measured at same checkpoints

VR Simulation: Outcome Measures

- 6 day study
- Undergraduate students
- Environmental Biology topics
- Measures of Knowledge Acquisition and Affect

Villanova University

Pande, P., Thit, A., Sørensen, A. E., Mojsoska, B., Moeller, M. E., & Jepsen, P. M. (2021). Long-term effectiveness of immersive VR simulations in undergraduate science learning: Lessons from a media-comparison study. Research in Learning Technology, 29, 24. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezp1.villanova.edu/10.25304/rlt.v29.2482

Long-term effectiveness of immersive VR simulations in undergraduate science learning: Lessons from a media-comparison study

- currently inconclusive research on effects of VR simulations on learning
- shows positive results on student cognition and affect
- novel and exciting technology for students to use
- possible cognitive overload
- research is highly controlled, limited, and mostly based in stem
- most studies short term and one-time

VR Simulations: Background

- How does student interaction with multiple iVR simulations on different topics in environmental biology affect their (1) learning of the content related to those topics, (2) intrinsic motivation, (3) self-efficacy, and (4) perceived learning, and enjoyment over time? (Cross-sectional/longitudinal patterns)
- How does the effect of iVR simulations on the above-mentioned learning outcomes compare with video-viewing (where students watch videos of the respective simulations)? (Media comparison)


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