VIRTUAL REALITY AND ITS IMPACT ON LEARNING SUCCESS

Abstract

For elementary schools, the question arises as to whether the use of Virtual Reality (VR) can lead to better learning success for pupils. A field experiment was chosen as the methodology for investigating this question. A total of 82 pupils from four first and third secondary school classes were available for this field experiment. They were randomly assigned to a group per class, taking gender into account. Both groups attended a pre-test one week before the respective course unit in order to identify any previous knowledge. One week after the course unit, both groups again completed the post-test. The tests were designed in such a way that equal weight was attached to each learning objective of the learning units. During the evaluation, the individual learning success, i.e. the difference between the post-test and the pre-test, was calculated for each pupil. No significant differences in learning success between the traditional and the VR based units could be found. However, the VR learning unit showed a positive effect on the learning success and was widely accepted by the pupils. From an methodological point of view it is very difficult to design equivalent learning units and to compare them fairly.