Technology-Enhanced Learning

Technology-enhanced Learning

• Introduction

• Analysis of the effectiveness of immersive learning based on electroencephalography data 

This study presents a method to validate the effectiveness of immersive education by developing a reliable evaluation system for virtual reality-based immersive learning. The approach combines quantitative analysis based on surveys with qualitative analysis using EEG data. To enhance reliability, biometric data such as EEG is included in the qualitative evaluation to analyze the impact of immersive education. The emotion measurement through EEG is primarily categorized into valence, indicating positive or negative mood, and arousal, indicating calmness or excitement. These are calculated as the ratio of beta to alpha waves, measured by electrode activation differences in the prefrontal and frontal lobes. Additionally, the study assesses immersion and focus by analyzing changes in theta, alpha, and beta waves across eight channels, including the prefrontal, temporal, central line, and occipital regions.

Experimental results showed that arousal increased by approximately 1.24 times when transitioning from a resting state to audiovisual content and by 1.54 times when switching to interactive content. In the valence-arousal graph, the resting state was located in the drowsiness and calmness region, audiovisual content in the joy region, and interactive content in the excitement region. The trends between the valence-arousal graph and EEG measurement data highly coincided, confirming that interactive content provides the highest levels of arousal, immersion, and focus to users. The consistency between survey results from previous studies and EEG data further suggests that virtual reality-based immersive learning environments with interactive content may offer stronger engagement and immersion, potentially leading to better learning outcomes for students.

• Analysis of Virtual Reality Teaching Methods in Engineering Education: Assessing Educational Effectiveness and Understanding of 3D Structure 

Traditional teaching methods that use 2D videos or 3D simulators may have limitations in engineering education when covering complex concepts or complicated 3D structures. To address this problem, virtual reality (VR) has been introduced as a highly immersive teaching method that can increase students’ learning and understanding of 3D structures from multiple perspectives. The purpose of this study was to quantify how teaching methods that use VR can increase learning efficiency and comprehension of 3D structures. We used quiz and 3D reconstruction to assess the quantitative learning effects of VR and 2D videos on a total of 40 students. Training that used VR yielded a 12% improvement in post-test quiz scores and a 13% improvement in 3D reconstruction test scores compared to the traditional method. User evaluations confirmed that VR increased engagement by 11.9%, immersion by 18.6%, motivation by 10.3%, cognitive benefits by 9.3%, and perceived learning effectiveness by 8.7%. These results confirm that VR is more effective than traditional learning methods to aid general memorization and understanding, and specific comprehension of 3D structures. 

• Analysis of the association between metaverse-based engineering education and environment, social and governance platforms 

This paper proposed a metaverse environment-based engineering education method to utilize it as a platform that meets sustainable environmental, social, and governance (ESG) according to social movement. In particular, it has accelerated rapidly through the rapid transition into a non-face-to-face era due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and various ICT technologies that can improve learning effects in such an environment are being studied around immersive environment-based metaverse. In particular, energy consumption and carbon footprint can be reduced by replacing them with a scalable, digitized environment that can accommodate many people without space-time constraints. In addition, users can interact with various objects and avatars and receive equal education while addressing ideological issues such as gender inequality and social gaps. At the same time, anonymity is guaranteed within a virtual environment. To verify the proposed method, we measured potential carbon footprint reduction as environmental factors and immersion as social and governance factors. 340 students participated in the conference conducted for the carbon footprint measurement experiment, and if the conference was conducted offline, the carbon footprint that could occur could be 8,011 kgCO2eq by transportation, 346.05 kgCO2eq due to the use of disposable products, and potentially reduced carbon footprint by 8,481 kgCO2eq due to conducting a metaverse-based online environment. The Likert 5-scale measured immersion through the Immersion Experience Questionnaire (IEQ), and 40 students participated in the seminar conducted for the experiment. As a result of the experiment, the average value of all items was about 4.51, and the five items with the highest average value were separated from the real world due to the high sense of immersion and presence from the environment, experiencing less inequality due to social factors such as gender, age, and position in an entirely given virtual environment, and evaluating suitability and fairness more strictly through avatars made of anonymous information. 

• Teaching methodology for understanding virtual reality and application development in engineering major 

This study proposed a virtual reality (VR) course that addresses the overall understanding and application of VR technology. After investigating previous studies, we found that two technologies must be applied to design a VR course that fits the latest trends. One is hardware technology dealing with the technical background, while the other is software utilization and development using the merits of VR technology. To accommodate these needs, we designed a VR course consisting of three steps: VR-related theory, TA-led content creation training, and team projects. Through this course, students will improve their ability to develop applications that apply to their research fields after studying the technical background and courses of VR. We conducted a semester-long study with nine students to verify the proposed method and then evaluated them through an in-depth interview and a questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale consisting of nine items. Considering this feedback, we have added several steps to improve the educational effect among students

• Impact of immersive virtual reality content using 360-degree videos in undergraduate education 

This article investigated the impact of immersive virtual reality (VR) content, using 360-degree videos, in undergraduate education. To improve the delivery and reality of 360-degree VR content, we filmed the video in the third person so that the viewers could feel like they were in the environment where the lecture was conducted. To verify the educational effects, 33 university students participated in our experiment. We conducted pretest learning, using 360-degree videos, and posttest learning via conventional 2-D videos for statistical analysis. A paired t-test was used to compare the means of the pretest and the posttest. In addition, learning via 360-degree videos was assessed for its effectiveness through questionnaires consisting of five measurement elements—engagement, immersion, motivation, cognitive benefits, and perceived learning effectiveness—and comparing them to the existing 2-D video method, based on e-learning. From the results, we confirmed that the teaching material delivered through 360-degree VR content allows students to be more focused, immersed, and interested than 2-D learning modes. Furthermore, the high scores of cognitive and perceived learning elements imply that VR-based 360-degree educational content can encourage more active participation than traditional lectures and can improve the ability to analyze and organize study lessons.