Building the Future of Educational VR: Towards an Immersive and Social Learning Experience

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) has the potential to revolutionize the way we learn and educate, enhancing and supplementing the traditional learning experience by providing new ways to interact with information and people. However, its full potential in education has yet to be fully realized, as work in this space requires resolving cutting-edge technical challenges and addressing context-specific, user-centered, and pedagogical concerns in real-world settings. This dissertation is aimed at pursuing the vision of educational VR through 1) empirical investigations from a multi-stakeholder perspective to understand educational VR adoption and usage, and 2) immersive technologies that enhance social learning experiences. More specifically, the first two qualitative studies aim to investigate the key stakeholders, challenges, and opportunities essential for the current and future utilization of VR in university classrooms, and to understand the pedagogies under the VR-based learning (using VR video as a practical example). The following two studies aim to develop collaborative and interactive technologies to enhance video-based learning experiences in VR, including VR videos and volumetric videos, and evaluate the impact of these technologies on knowledge acquisition and other learning experience metrics. Overall, this dissertation advocates key strategies to drive the adoption of educational VR: lowering the entry level of VR creation tools, fostering collaborative and social experiences, and emphasizing community engagement as the foundational element for widespread VR adoption.