Virtual Reality as Experiential Learning to Promote STEM-DRR in Tertiary Education

Abstract

Efforts and discourses of the need to integrate disaster education into a science curriculum for university students in Indonesia are well documented. However, lecturers need more room to introduce Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in a way that involves students as experiential learners. Integrating DRR into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects is a crucial point. The current study used virtual reality (VR) as a pedagogical tool for learning through experience to promote STEM-DRR at tertiary levels of education. This experimental study aimed to determine the effects of VR use on students' experiential learning based on the VR online training developed activities. The methods for data collection included observation and survey. Ten participants were in the final year of their study and were recruited based on their interest in using VR media for their thesis. The results showed that half of the participants understood the training content, and 40% were classified as knowledgeable before training. In addition, significant contributions to the learning process were observed in training, where half participants were satisfied with the new skills attained, and 80% of the participants argued that the training was beneficial to their final projects. Thus, in the present study integrating STEM-DRR into the VR training content to promote students' awareness of disaster risk is considered successful. In conclusion, the results suggest that technology-enhanced learning supports distance learning and is proven economical and efficient.