Effect of Extended Reality Learning Experience on Student Engagement in Science and Engineering Courses

Abstract

Engagement increases the success rate of students in higher education. This work aimed to determine the effect of extended reality learning (XR) experience on student engagement in science and engineering courses, using the Marzano and Kendall´s taxonomy of education. Higher education students' perception of relevance, motivation, self-efficacy, and emotions after participating in an XR learning activity were measured. Two case studies corresponding to two technological institutions of higher education, one in Mexico and one in China, were investigated. The first employed an augmented reality (ART3D) application in a biology course, while the second used a virtual reality (Manta) technology in a chemistry course. Both sets of students answered the same questionnaire. A survey of four Likert-scale and one open-ended question was analyzed using a mixedmethods approach. Descriptive statistics analysis, normality tests, Mood's Median Test, Qualitative emotions codification was made over the answers to the openended question. Results show that engagement-related self-system thinking factors, relevance, motivation, and self-efficacy, are high when an XR is used as an educational strategy. In the case of an AR learning resource, relevance, motivation, and emotions were correlated. In contrast, in the case of a VR learning resource, self-efficacy in skills and critical-thinking competence were related to positive emotions.

Arts Professors’ Perception of the Didactic Use of Virtual Reality

“…These differences are mainly based on the renunciation of face-to-face interaction to give greater prominence to 22 Arts Professors' Perception of the Didactic Use of Virtual … International Journal of Instruction, July 2024 • Vol.17, No.3 interaction with the (virtual) learning object (Alter, 2014). The literature reveals that the use of VR increases student engagement in classroom activities (Vázquez-Villegas et al, 2023) and that the main formative benefits of the inclusion of digital learning environments in the specific field of arts education are the increase of students' motivation and the ease of designing cooperative didactic situations (Quinn, 2011). From the point of view of art learning, the literature identifies that the most effective digital learning environments in arts education are environments that allow interactive simulations of art objects and, particularly, virtual environments .…”

“…A digital learning environment is an environment hosted in a virtual classroom that carries out learning activities (Veletsianos, 2016). Therefore, the use of digital learning environments involves the use of digital technologies, like VR, which can generate the necessary interaction between the learners and the learning objects or the teacher (Vázquez-Villegas et al, 2023). To the extent that these digital technologies are mediators of learning in digital learning environments, they can be considered didactic resources, in this case of a digital type.…”