How tutors assist adults with learning disabilities to use virtual environments

Area of Science:

• Virtual Reality
• Learning Disabilities
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Desktop virtual environments (DVEs) offer potential for teaching independent living skills to adults with learning disabilities.
• Understanding effective tutoring strategies within these environments is crucial for maximizing learning outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe tutor strategies for teaching adults with learning disabilities to use DVEs.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies by analyzing changes in tutor and learner behavior over time.

Main Methods:

• Twenty adults with learning disabilities received 12 DVE training sessions from four tutors.
• Sessions were videotaped and analyzed for tutor behaviors and learner goal achievement.

Main Results:

• Tutor strategies focused on interaction device mastery or environmental navigation and goal achievement.
• Learner goal achievement remained constant, while specific help with interaction devices and environment decreased over sessions.
• Tutor experience with the DVEs did not correlate with strategy differences or outcomes.

Conclusions:

• Pretraining adults with learning disabilities on DVE interaction devices could enhance learning focus on goal achievement.
• Integrating specific tutor assistance directly into the DVE software could improve efficiency.