Creativo: Design and Evaluation of a Multi-User Collaborative Learning Environment in Virtual Reality

Abstract

Virtual Reality is increasingly more prevalent in higher education. While mainly used for science learning and knowledge retention, the possibilities for virtual applications in learning are much more vast. Creativo is a multi-user collaborative virtual learning space that was created in Unity, following pedagogical guidelines, and evaluated in a within-subjects study with 29 students of different majors at Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt. A mixed-method design including quantitative (UEQ-S, NASA-TLX) and qualitative data was used to compare Creativo with a conventional learning setting. The results of the UEQ-S show overall good usability of both settings, while the conventional environment performed significantly better on the pragmatic quality, and the virtual environment performed significantly better on the hedonic quality. The results of the NASA-TLX show the perceived workload of both environments is high, though significantly higher in the virtual environment than in the conventional one. Overall, the qualitative data yielded good results regarding the VR environment with the need for technical improvements.