The effects of navigational control and environmental detail on learning in 3D virtual environments

Abstract

Studying what design features are necessary and effective for educational virtual environments (VEs), we focused on two design issues: level of environmental detail and method of navigation. In a controlled experiment, participants studied animal facts distributed among different locations in an immersive VE. Participants viewed the information as either an automated tour through the environment or with full navigational control. The experiment also compared two levels of environmental detail: a sparse environment with only the animal fact cards and a detailed version that also included landmark items and ground textures. The experiment tested memory and understanding of the animal information. Though neither environmental detail nor navigation type significantly affected learning outcomes, the results suggest that manual navigation may have negatively affected the learning activity. Also, learning scores were correlated with both spatial ability and video game usage, suggesting that educational VEs may not be an appropriate presentation method for some learners. To address this issue, our research investigates how specific design features influence learner strategies and the effectiveness of learning when information is presented at different locations in a VE. Previous research has provided evidence that learners do reference locations when trying to remember information [7], and that presenting items in different locations can improve recall [8,9]. However, little is known about what factors influence these effects, and the flexibility of VEs leads to a large number of design factors for consideration. These factors include not only the design of the virtual content, but also the methods for accessing that content. KEYWORDSIn a controlled experiment, we studied how participants learned facts distributed among various locations within a VE. We evaluated differences in learning performance and learner strategies due to the level of navigational control and the level of environmental detail. Considering the design of the virtual content, we aim to better understand how a VE's environmental details and landmarks influence learning. Environmental details could also affect users' abilities to keep track of where certain information was located and which locations have been previously visited. Thus, this issue is closely related to the choice of an appropriate method for navigation within a VE. Our study compares interactive and automated navigation methods. Compared to automated presentations, fully manual navigation provides the freedom for learners to control the order and duration in which information is viewed, but at the cost of additional interaction and decisionmaking. RELATED WORKResearchers have suggested that VEs could provide advantages for conceptual learning by allowing opportunities for learners to view information within the context of meaningful locations [e.g., 4, 5, 10]. However, it is unknown whether a location is meaningful because of the information associated with that place or if the ...

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