Effects of spherical video-based virtual reality on nursing students’ learning performance in childbirth education training

Lessons learned from a project examining the learning outcomes and experiences in 360o videos

“…Nevertheless, our findings confirm the existing literature reporting that 360 o videos are able to produce positive learning outcomes (e.g., Chang et al, 2019;Fokides & Arvaniti, 2020;Wu et al, 2019). Thus, what we have to discuss is the "why" these outcomes were observed.…”

“…Furthermore, in our additional analysis, we confirmed the positive impact of this factor on the learning outcomes. Therefore, immersion offers a quite strong explanation for the outcomes, as it allows a better understanding of concepts and processes (e.g., Chang et al, 2019;Dawson et al, 2018;Fokides & Arvaniti, 2020). In addition, we found that students were more motivated to learn when viewing 360 o videos and we noted motivation's positive impact on students' learning.…”

“…As for the learning outcomes per se, either when 360 o videos were used as the only tool or when they were compared with other teaching tools, the results, although promising, were mixed. Several researchers reported a positive impact on learning (e.g., Chang et al, 2019;Pham et al, 2018;Wu et al, 2019) and the acquisition of skills (e.g., Parmaxi et al, 2018). Then again, others reported that their impact was not that significant (e.g., Karageorgakis & Nisiforou, 2018;Ulrich et al, 2019).…”

“…As viewers can explore their surroundings by watching different parts of the scene and focus their attention on details that otherwise could have been passed unseen, we can argue that 360 o videos are more immersive than regular videos. In fact, research has demonstrated that, in 360 o videos, the feelings of immersion and presence were rather strong (e.g., Argyriou et al, 2017;Berns et al, 2018;Elmezeny et al, 2018;Fokides & Kefalinou, 2020;Higuera-Trujillo et al, 2019) and that students were able to better understand concepts, processes, and problems (e.g., Chang et al, 2019;Dawson et al, 2018;Fokides & Arvaniti, 2020). However, research has suggested that 360 o videos do not offer high levels of immersion and that the quality of experience is lower than that of VR experiences based on 3D graphics (e.g., Rupp et al, 2019).…”

“…Besides attributing the positive learning outcomes to immersion and presence, researchers attributed the results to other learning facilitating factors as well. For example, they noted that the novelty of the experience (Lin et al, 2019) led to increased levels of enjoyment, satisfaction (e.g., Chang et al, 2019;Lee et al, 2017), and motivation (Fokides & Arvaniti, 2020;King-Thompson, 2017;Xie et al, 2019). In fact, students' responses regarding their experiences were highly positive, characterizing them as positive, useful, engaging, and that 360 o videos facilitated their comprehension/learning of the subjects they were taught (Fung et al, 2019;Huang et al, 2019;Ulrich et al, 2019).…”