The Role of Immersive Virtual Reality in Individual Learning

Abstract

New technologies create opportunities to improve education and, in this way, the individual learning. Due to their certain characteristics, such as immersion (i.e. the total engagement to a specific activity while other attentional demands are ignored), immersive Virtual Reality (VR) systems have the potential to increase the individual learning performance. Modern VR-head mounted displays (e.g. Oculus Rift) and provided controllers allow a new kind of interaction within a virtual environment. Against this background, the construct cognitive absorption (CA) within a learning context emerged. CA consists of five sub- constructs: temporal dissociation, curiosity, enjoyment, control, and immersion. Both, learning and CA, have already been brought together but not within a context of immersive VR. Hence, this study examines learning and its conditions within an immersive VR context by a Grounded Theory approach with 21 qualitative interviews. Implications for theory and design are derived.