A Systematic Literature Review of Virtual Reality in Engineering Education: The Lack of a Common Evaluative Methodology

Virtual Reality (VR) has proven to be a flexible tool used to simulate unusual scenarios, with the purpose of improving the training of future engineering professionals. Currently, a large number of articles referring to VR in education are published, so this review is necessary to give guidance to those researchers interested in the subject. In this review, 3 unknowns were resolved: 1) focusing areas of VR in engineering education 2) leading nations and 3) funding importance. 74 articles downloaded from the Web of Science database were reviewed using the PRISMA guide. It was found that VR is applied in a wide range of subjects focused on engineering in general. Taking a deeper look, Computer Science is the area that is receiving the most attention from VR. In addition, the United States is the country leading these investigations and the importance of financing is also seen in the present research. Finally, the lack of a common evaluative methodology was analyzed, as well as the problems of massification of VR and the impact of this technology on student´s motivation