Supporting active learning through immersive mixed and virtual reality technologies
Master thesis
Permanent lenke
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3075120Utgivelsesdato
2023Metadata
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Sammendrag
As the world economies continue to grow, natural resources are being used at such high rates thatmay negatively affect future generations. One of the issues is that the general population may knowsome solutions for reducing energy consumption, for example in transportation, but few may knowabout sustainable food production and sustainability concepts in a wider context. It can be challenging to create learning tools and learning content to suit the learning needs of the general population.
This master thesis explores mixed (MR) and virtual (VR) reality technologies as a support tool forlearning sustainability concepts through active learning strategies. The research investigates design choices and their effectiveness in creating immersive learning experiences as well as the user’sperceived experiences of presence and motivation to learn. A human-centered design approach isadopted to create a ‘sustainable future city’ use case focusing on learning concepts of sustainablehorticulture such as vertical farming, hydroponic-, aeroponic- and aquaponic systems.
The research investigates the state-of-the-art of MR and VR technologies, and looks into perceivedlevels of presence and motivation in an immersive experience that combines MR and VR as oneapplication. Human-centered design activities taken include interviews with five randomly sampledparticipants to validate requirements, interests in topics, and technology choices. Further on, designand development tasks were carried out to develop a functional prototype running on Meta QuestPro head mount device. A mixed method approach was taken for the user testing and evaluation oftwo design iterations. That involved user observation in UiA’s usability laboratory, questionnaireand in-depth interviews with 10 participants. This study’s findings indicate that key design decisions for the immersive experience included guided exploration, realistic visualization, and handgesture interactions. Further, there were positive outcomes on both observation and feedback fromusers as high levels of presence, fun, and interest in the topic were distinguished. Some main specificfindings were that while most participants were observed to experience presence as expected, oneparticipant indicated that they had a low sense of presence and were distracted by the environmentand unfamiliarity with the technology. This suggests that users can feel low levels of presence evenwhen they are fully involved in the virtual environment, because of the cognitive process requiredto experience presence. Further regarding motivation, all participants stated they preferred theimmersive experience over traditional means such as textbooks, as it made learning more fun andinteresting in an active way.
The study was limited in scope and sample size, nevertheless it was concluded that overall thedesign decisions made for the use case were at a large extent effective in supporting active learning,and the designed tool can be easily used by the general population.