Sequence immersive VR viewing with an introductory lecture and teacher-facilitated reflective group dialogues to make VR experiences collaborative¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 7 claims (7 for) · 2 studies (1 qualitative, 1 theoretical), q1–q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 7 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The learning design places an individually-oriented VR medium inside a three-part activity sequence so that the experience becomes a shared resource for dialogue. As the authors state, "our developed learning design involved the following three, temporally organized activities: (1) an introductory lecture by one of the teachers, (2) VR experiences, and (3) reflective group dialogues." Five headsets ran at a time, students familiarized themselves with VR applications beforehand to avoid the awe factor, and dialogues of 20–30 minutes in groups of 2–5 immediately followed viewing. The design targeted the interdisciplinary topic of Health and life skills.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Students must first familiarize themselves with VR applications before the learning activity, which the authors note is recommended to avoid the awe factor.
• Five headsets were available, so only five students could view the film simultaneously.
• Reflective dialogues require a teacher or researcher facilitator per small group.

Constraints¶

• The VR headset makes collaboration physically difficult during viewing; the design relies on the surrounding activities, not VR-internal collaboration.
• Learning designs were co-developed with teachers and appropriated to local curriculum needs, which the authors note is necessary for teachers to find immersive technologies relevant and manageable.

Target Learners¶

• upper secondary students (17–18 years old) in K-12 education

Target Learning Goals¶

• learning about interpersonal relationships, exclusion and discrimination
• managing thoughts, emotions and relations with others
• reflecting on personal stories of racialized exclusion and the US civil rights movement

Claims¶

• Students attended to bodily expressions of people in the VR film as resources for interpreting emotional states and engaging with their stories [+M]
• Students characterized their VR experience through a feeling of taking part in conversations, showing co-presence with the people in the film during collaborative reflection [+M]
• Four dimensions characterize students' meaning making of immersive VR experiences across all eight reflective group dialogues [+M]
• Students in an upper secondary classroom experienced the individually-oriented viewing of the VR film Travelling While Black as highly social, despite sitting silently in headset-wearing groups [+M]
• Students' own bodily responses to the VR film became resources in reflective dialogue for characterizing emotional reactions and reinterpreting prior experiences [+M]
• Teachers adopted varying levels and strategies of guidance during reflective dialogues about VR experiences, which shaped students' meaning making [+M]
• The editorial reports that immersive VR became a resource for collaborative meaning making through 'emancipatory immersion' (Silseth et al.) [+W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Kenneth Silseth, Rolf Steier, Hans Christian Arnseth. (2024). Exploring students’ immersive VR experiences as resources for collaborative meaning making and learning. Intern. J. Comput.-Support. Collab. Learn. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11412-023-09413-0