Topic 5 - The WORLD OF VIRTUAL LEARNING

Introduction

Virtual worlds are defined as shared, simulated spaces that allow for participants to interact with their environment and each other, ultimately building a shared understanding of the virtual world (Girvan, 2018). Engaging in virtual worlds as part of a student’s learning environment has been shown to have major achievements in emotional areas, including a higher sense of satisfaction in task completion, greater enjoyment, and being present, as well as developing higher-order cognitive skills, including the ability to communicate effectively and remain engaged in the content (Reisoglu et al., 2017). Questions have been raised, however, in relation to the scalability of virtual worlds in relation to their use across different year groups in schools, and the importance surrounding the design and focus of the virtual world itself (Vykopal et al., 2022).

Pedagogy and Scalability

Virtual learning worlds adopt a social constructivist pedagogical approach where learning is afforded to a student through the virtual environment that aims to guide students in learning new concepts (Pellas et al., 2016). There are significant multimedia effects on a learner in a virtual reality world, where lessons present spoken/written words and interactive animations. This effect highlights the importance of ensuring that added visuals do not overload a student’s cognitive processing capacity through extraneous information that takes away from the essential material (Parong & Mayer, 2018). Nevertheless, virtual worlds provide students with the benefits of experiential learning, increased engagement and collaboration, and a greater understanding of spatial knowledge representations (Fowler, 2015).

Primary School

In primary education, studies have found that students who engaged in virtual worlds in STEM subjects demonstrated greater learning gains in understanding specific concepts and materials in contrast to control groups (expository texts) (Pellas et al., 2016). These results were particularly present when the learning was done through a science course, and have also been supported when used as part of a mathematics lesson (Akman & Cakir, 2020). The video below is an example of this type of learning through the program, Avantis World, which is a virtual world learning program that is scalable to both primary school and high school environments.

ePortfolio Post 5 Video.mp4

High School

The high school learning environment has also benefitted from virtual world lessons, where self-efficacy and motivation significantly improved when learning was virtually simulated in STEM subjects (Thisgaard & Makransky, 2017). Another study found that students in a mathematics class reported learning more when watching video tutorials, but still needed validation from their mathematics teachers to gain confidence in what they acquired from the video (Cortez, 2020).

This suggests that although the scalability and use-case of virtual worlds carries potential, the role of the teacher carries an effect that is difficult to obtain solely from virtual world environments.

References

Akman, E., & Cakir, R. (2020). The effect of educational virtual reality game on primary school students’ achievement and engagement in mathematics. Interactive Learning Environments. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2020.1841800

Cortez, C. P. (2020). Blended, distance, electronic and virtual-learning for the new normal of mathematics education: A senior high school student’s perception. European Journal of Interactive Multimedia and Education 1(1).

Fowler, C. (2015). Virtual reality and learning: Where is the pedagogy? British Journal of Educational Technology 46. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12135

Girvan, C. (2018). What is a virtual world? Definition and classification. Educational Technology Research Development 66, 1087-1100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-018-9577-y

Pellas, N., Kazanidis, I., Konstantinou, N., & Georgiou, G. (2016). Exploring the educational potential of three-dimensional multi-user virtual worlds for STEM education: A mixed-method systematic literature review. Education and Information Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-016-9537-2

Perong, J., & Mayer, R. E. (2018). Learning science in immersive virtual reality. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037.edu0000241

Reisoglu, I., Topu, B., Yilmaz, R., Yilmaz, T. K., & Goktas, Y. (2017). 3D virtual learning environments in education: a meta-review. Asia Pacific Education Review 18, 81-100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-016-9467-0

Thisgaard, M., & Makransky, G> (2017). Virtual learning simulations in high school: effects on cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes and implications on the development of STEM academic and career choice. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00805

Vykopal, J., Celeda, P., Seda, P., Svabensky, V., & Tovarnak, D. (2022). Scalable learning environments for teaching cybersecurity hands-on. Published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE49875.2021.9637180

Header image: https://www.deviantart.com/creativegalaxy50/art/The-door-in-library-982591076

Metaverse video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nwQ36m9aDE

The black background and image used in the portfolio contents page was obtained from Google Sites.

Page updated

Report abuse