Collaborative and individual learning of geography in immersive virtual reality: An effectiveness study

Area of Science:

• Educational Technology
• Virtual Reality in Education
• Geography Education

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift to online learning, highlighting the limitations of traditional web-based distance education in fostering interpersonal interaction.
• Immersive virtual reality (iVR) presents a potential solution to enhance engagement and collaboration in remote learning environments.
• Existing research indicates promising results for iVR in knowledge construction and skills training, particularly with spatial visualizations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of collaborative immersive virtual environment (CIVE) and individual iVR for geography education, specifically hypsography training.
• To determine if collaborative learning in iVR is more effective than individual learning.
• To investigate differences in motivation and cognitive resource utilization between collaborative and individual iVR learning.

Main Methods:

• Eighty participants were trained in inferring conclusions from cartographic visualizations using a CIVE application developed at Masaryk University.
• The study involved a pretest, iVR training (individual or collaborative), posttest, and questionnaires.
• Statistical analyses compared learning gains, speed, motivation, and cognitive resource use between the individual and collaborative groups.

Main Results:

• Both individual and collaborative iVR significantly improved geography scores, with collaborative learning showing a larger increase.
• Individual learning also improved speed, whereas collaborative learning did not show a significant speed improvement.
• No significant differences were found in overall learning gain, speed gain, or performance motivation between the groups; however, collaborative learning demonstrated significantly higher cognitive resource utilization.

Conclusions:

• Immersive virtual reality is an effective medium for geography education, particularly for hypsography training.
• While collaborative iVR learning engages cognitive resources more intensely, it did not yield significantly greater learning gains or motivation compared to individual iVR learning in this study.
• Further research is recommended to explore optimal iVR learning designs, considering cognitive load theories and enhancing collaborative elements.