Abstract:

Virtual reality has become very popular recently. Due to huge industry investments it now has become affordable for education too, although actual use in the classroom is still low. In this explorative study the acceptance of immersive virtual reality in secondary education teachers is investigated. Semi-structured interviews were taken, using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) as a theoretical framework. In order to fully understand which factors could possibly impact the acceptance by teachers, five (n = 5) teachers, five (n = 5) principals, five (n = 5) IT staff members and five (n = 5) teachers' trainers were interviewed. All interviews were transcribed and analysed using NVivo. First, the interviews were open coded. For inter-rater reliability a number of interviews were analysed by all three researchers and codes and subcodes identified were discussed. Next, a final codebook was used for the analysis for the maintaining interviews. Results prove UTAUT2 to serve as a comprehensive model to understand acceptance factors for immersive virtual reality in secondary education teachers. However, personal innovativeness in the domain of information technology, which lacks in the UTAUT2 framework, is reported to have an impact in the acceptance too. Benefits identified by the interviewees are the unlimited training opportunities, the possibility to show things which are normally invisible and to experience new situations first hand. Barriers are the cost, the lack of content, the effort it takes to prepare and implement, fear of innovation, lack of technical skills in teachers and lack of infrastructure. These findings help to understand how teachers should be supported when striving for adoption of immersive virtual reality in secondary education.

Keywords:

Adoption, educational technology, interview, technology acceptance, UTAUT2.