From Artifacts to Outcomes

Comparison of HMD VR, Desktop, and Slides Lectures for Food Microbiology Laboratory Instruction

 

Fei Xue, Rongchen Guo, Siyuan Yao, Luxin Wang, Kwan-Liu Ma

CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

ACM Digital Library      Video      Presentation

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Abstract:

We designed a virtual reality-based lecture for a Food Microbiology Laboratory class and compared it with lectures using PowerPoint slides and desktop VR. Grounded in the theory of distributed cognition and motivational theories, our study systematically examined how learning occurs in each condition from students' learning processes, outcomes, behaviors, and perceptions.

Our result indicates that VR facilitates students’ long-term retention and motivation to learn by cultivating their longer visual attention and fostering a higher sense of immersion, though students’ short-term retention remains the same across all conditions.