Assessing the efficacy of VR for foreign language learning using multimodal learning analytics

Abstract

This chapter describes a small-scale pilot study in which participants in the experimental group learned how to write Japanese kanji characters within an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) graffiti simulator (the Kingspray Graffiti Simulator on the Oculus Rift VR system). In comparing the experimental group to the non-VR control group in the context of embodied cognition, the authors used a multimodal learning analytics approach: the participants’ body movements were recorded using a full-body 3D motion-tracker and clustered with a machine learning algorithm. The participants were also compared on the basis of a written posttest and a follow-up survey.