VisTA-LIVE: A Visualization Tool for Assessment of Laboratories in Virtual Environments.

Area of Science:

• Educational Technology
• Virtual Reality in Education
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Virtual Reality (VR) laboratories are increasingly adopted by educational institutions for procedural knowledge delivery.
• Current VR lab designs primarily focus on the student experience, offering limited insight for instructors.
• Instructors face challenges in monitoring student performance and providing timely, effective feedback in VR lab settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce VisTA-LIVE, a Visualization Tool for Assessment of Laboratories In Virtual Environments.
• To detail the design thinking process behind the development of VisTA-LIVE.
• To address the need for improved instructor monitoring and assessment capabilities in VR lab environments.

Main Methods:

• The study employed a design thinking approach to develop VisTA-LIVE.
• The tool was implemented within an Extended Reality (XR) environment.
• Evaluation involved domain experts to assess the tool's effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.

Main Results:

• VisTA-LIVE provides a visualization tool for assessing virtual laboratories.
• Expert evaluations yielded insights into monitoring and assessing live VR lab sessions.
• The design of VisTA-LIVE can serve as a reference for future educational XR application development.

Conclusions:

• VisTA-LIVE enhances the assessment capabilities for instructors in VR lab settings.
• The tool facilitates better monitoring and feedback mechanisms, improving the educational value of VR labs.
• Further research directions are identified for optimizing live VR lab session assessment.