Abstract

Due to globalization, emerging technologies, and the knowledge economy, there has been a growing emphasis on students having global competencies and perspectives to succeed in an increasingly interconnected world. On the other hand, a variety of technologies have been adopted for inquiry-based learning (IBL) activities. An interactive e-book environment can provide an interface with multimedia for promoting meaningful learning. Virtual reality (VR) can support situated learning by placing learners in an interactive realistic-like environment for promoting student learning. The sense of presence in the environment enhances motivational variables, thereby impacting learning achievements. However, rare exploratory research methods have been used to investigate the sense of presence and academic performance, representing a significant research gap. Thus, we designed a VR-assisted inquiry-based learning (VR-IBL) approach to enhance students’ learning. Furthermore, a quasi-experimental design setting was carried out to investigate the influences of the implemented approach on students’ learning effectiveness, compared to an e-book-assisted inquiry-based learning (eB-IBL) approach. The experimental results evidenced that the VR-IBL approach significantly improved the students’ science learning achievements and enhanced their sense of presence; moreover, the VR-IBL approach benefited the global perspectives of the students with initial moderate and low global perspectives. This could be a good reference for utilizing VR technology in education.

中文翻译：

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VR辅助探究式学习，提升学生科学学习成果、存在感、全球视野

摘要

由于全球化、新兴技术和知识经济，人们越来越重视学生拥有全球能力和视角，以便在日益互联的世界中取得成功。另一方面，探究式学习（IBL）活动已采用多种技术。交互式电子书环境可以提供多媒体界面，以促进有意义的学习。虚拟现实（VR）可以通过将学习者置于类似现实的交互式环境中来支持情境学习，以促进学生的学习。环境中的存在感增强了动机变量，从而影响学习成绩。然而，很少有探索性研究方法被用来调查存在感和学业成绩，这代表着巨大的研究空白。因此，我们设计了一种虚拟现实辅助探究式学习（VR-IBL）方法来增强学生的学习。此外，还进行了准实验设计设置，以调查与电子书辅助探究式学习（eB-IBL）方法相比，所实施的方法对学生学习效率的影响。实验结果表明，VR-IBL方法显着提高了学生的科学学习成绩，增强了学生的存在感；此外，VR-IBL方法有利于最初具有中度和低度全球视野的学生的全球视野。这对于VR技术在教育中的应用具有很好的参考意义。