Abstract:

The virtual reality (VR) technologies are becoming more widespread in the field of education. However, there is a problem of evaluating the effectiveness of using VR in the educational process especially in comparison with traditional educational formats. In this study it was aimed to investigate the impact of presentation of educational information in foreign language in the VR-format on the learning effectiveness. 12 healthy subjects (7 women and 5 men) took part in the experiment. All participants were Russians. Each participant studied the educational material in three conditions presenting in pseudorandom order: text, 2D-video, VR. In all sessions material on the stars which told about the constellations and the history of their names was presented in English. Thus participants should study the material in foreign language. The text consisted of 623 words. The 2D video and VR learning condition lasted for 5 minutes and 26 seconds and during them participants could manipulate with objects and change their location. Before the start of the experiment it was provided the questionnaire to determine the basic level of knowledge and VR training gaming session. In the 2D-video condition stimulus was presented using iPad pro 9.7, in the VR condition material was introduced by Samsung Gear VR. The results were analyzed using the Student's t-test. It was obtained the significant increasing in correct answers in comparison to baseline after immersion in VR (t = 4,111 p<0,05) and in 2D-video condition (t=3,503, p<0,05). The number of correct answers did not significantly change after reading the text. Thus the results shown that the educational material presentation in multimedia forms was more effective. A likely explanation for this fact is the possibility of active content research by performing manipulation in VR and 2D-video condition.

Keywords:

Virtual reality, digital education, foreign language.