Room Scale Virtual Reality Physics Education: Use Cases for the Classroom

Abstract

Interactive and digital learning experiences are becoming increasingly important and used to improve various learning scenarios. In physics education, the use of digital simulations or virtual laboratories to support the learners’ understanding is already part of most classrooms. Virtual reality experiences can be used to create even more exciting, engaging, and realistic learning setups to conduct experiments and work with simulations. A range of studies has shown a positive effect of virtual reality experiences for learning. In this paper, we explore the potential of physics education in virtual reality in school-based classroom scenarios. We present a study with 147 high school students from four different schools, to evaluate the potential of room-scale VR learning setups in classroom learning with a focus on engagement and learning experience and focus on dandifying potential use cases for learning experiences in schools from the students’ perspective. In this study, we found that students described the experiences as highly engaging and a valuable tool to increase motivation in classrooms. They would rather use VR for learning in the classroom than at home. They prefer a PC-based VR setup over a mobile phone setup. Four main identified use cases for using VR in classrooms from the students’ perspective are evaluated and discussed.