Body Postures in Immersive Virtual Reality: Supporting Conceptual Understanding in Undergraduate Biology

• In Event: Virtual and Augmented Reality Applications in Education

Abstract

Educators are recognizing the transformative power of immersive virtual reality (VR) to allow learners to experience firsthand phenomena that are previously inaccessible, such as atoms and molecules. Affordances for full-body interaction in VR also call into question the connections between sensorimotor systems and cognition. A VR simulation was co-designed with an instructor of an undergraduate microbiology course with 234 students. They were taught using an active learning approach, which includes peer instruction and exposure to a two-dimensional computer simulation. 34 students participated in a VR experience. We found that being ‘seated’ is associated to a significantly higher delayed post-test and course outcomes, compared to those who were ‘standing’ as well as students who did not participate in the VR experience.

Authors

• Michelle Lui, University of Toronto

• Martha Mullally, Carleton University

• Rhonda McEwen, University of Toronto