Doctoral Colloquium—How Interactivity and Presence Affect Learning in Immersive Virtual Reality: A Mixed Methods Study Design

Abstract

This doctoral colloquium paper describes a mixed-methods study to investigate the impact of high interactivity Immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) materials on learning in higher education. It is motivated by the changing landscape of iVR technology and the need to develop pedagogic frameworks for its effective integration into higher education settings. The study will focus on the concepts of interactivity and presence, exploring their influence on learning outcomes and the learner's experience. The research questions address the relationship between interactivity, presence, and learning outcomes, with a specific focus on the impact of different levels of interactivity on feelings of presence and measures of learning, and the impact of interactivity and presence on cognitive load. The study will employ a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews to capture a holistic understanding of the effects of the iVR intervention. The iVR experience material, a fully planned narratively structured interactive game designed to teach about the pH scale and how to conduct pH testing, has been developed in Unity for use with Meta Quest 2 headsets and touch controllers. The study is expected to contribute to the development of a framework for integrating iVR in higher education and a taxonomy of VR pedagogy and affordances.