Measuring Learnability through Virtual Reality Laboratory Application: A User Study

The cutting-edge technology of virtual reality has changed almost every aspect of life in e-commerce, engineering, medicine, and entertainment. This technology has also made its way to the field of education in the form of virtual laboratories. A lack of student engagement and interest towards STEM...

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Main Authors: Ghazala Rasheed, Muzafar Khan, Noman Malik, Adnan Akhunzada
Format: Article
Language:English
English
Published: MDPI 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32103/1/Measuring%20Learnability%20through%20Virtual%20Reality%20Laboratory%20Application.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32103/2/Measuring%20Learnability%20through%20Virtual%20Reality%20Laboratory%20Application1.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32103/
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/19/10812
https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910812
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spelling my.ums.eprints.321032022-03-30T05:48:45Z https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32103/ Measuring Learnability through Virtual Reality Laboratory Application: A User Study Ghazala Rasheed Muzafar Khan Noman Malik Adnan Akhunzada QA75.5-76.95 Electronic computers. Computer science QA76.75-76.765 Computer software The cutting-edge technology of virtual reality has changed almost every aspect of life in e-commerce, engineering, medicine, and entertainment. This technology has also made its way to the field of education in the form of virtual laboratories. A lack of student engagement and interest towards STEM subjects is reported in the literature. Several studies have been conducted to evaluate virtual reality in education, but these studies are limited in terms of participants and subject coverage. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of virtual laboratories to develop student’s practical learning skills for secondary school physics. For this purpose, a desktop-based virtual laboratory application was developed based on the guidelines extracted from the literature. A user study was adopted as the main research method, and it was conducted with 184 students of 4 different schools. In each school, students were divided into two groups: experimental (used the virtual laboratory application) and control (used a physical laboratory). The data were collected through an academic quiz conducted at the end of the study. The mean score of the experimental group was 7.16, compared with 5.87 for the control group. The results revealed that the students’ learning using the virtual laboratory application was better compared with the control group. Interestingly, there was no significant difference in the performance of boys and girls in both groups. The usability questionnaire was also completed by 92 students of the experimental group to assess the application interface. The mean score was 73.5 (above average) with an internal consistency of 0.76. The participants found the virtual laboratory application to be user-friendly, easy to use, and supportive in learning. MDPI 2021 Article PeerReviewed text en https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32103/1/Measuring%20Learnability%20through%20Virtual%20Reality%20Laboratory%20Application.pdf text en https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32103/2/Measuring%20Learnability%20through%20Virtual%20Reality%20Laboratory%20Application1.pdf Ghazala Rasheed and Muzafar Khan and Noman Malik and Adnan Akhunzada (2021) Measuring Learnability through Virtual Reality Laboratory Application: A User Study. Sustainability, 13. pp. 1-16. ISSN 2071-1050 https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/19/10812 https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910812
institution Universiti Malaysia Sabah
building UMS Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Malaysia Sabah
content_source UMS Institutional Repository
url_provider http://eprints.ums.edu.my/
language English
English
topic QA75.5-76.95 Electronic computers. Computer science
QA76.75-76.765 Computer software
spellingShingle QA75.5-76.95 Electronic computers. Computer science
QA76.75-76.765 Computer software
Ghazala Rasheed
Muzafar Khan
Noman Malik
Adnan Akhunzada
Measuring Learnability through Virtual Reality Laboratory Application: A User Study
description The cutting-edge technology of virtual reality has changed almost every aspect of life in e-commerce, engineering, medicine, and entertainment. This technology has also made its way to the field of education in the form of virtual laboratories. A lack of student engagement and interest towards STEM subjects is reported in the literature. Several studies have been conducted to evaluate virtual reality in education, but these studies are limited in terms of participants and subject coverage. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of virtual laboratories to develop student’s practical learning skills for secondary school physics. For this purpose, a desktop-based virtual laboratory application was developed based on the guidelines extracted from the literature. A user study was adopted as the main research method, and it was conducted with 184 students of 4 different schools. In each school, students were divided into two groups: experimental (used the virtual laboratory application) and control (used a physical laboratory). The data were collected through an academic quiz conducted at the end of the study. The mean score of the experimental group was 7.16, compared with 5.87 for the control group. The results revealed that the students’ learning using the virtual laboratory application was better compared with the control group. Interestingly, there was no significant difference in the performance of boys and girls in both groups. The usability questionnaire was also completed by 92 students of the experimental group to assess the application interface. The mean score was 73.5 (above average) with an internal consistency of 0.76. The participants found the virtual laboratory application to be user-friendly, easy to use, and supportive in learning.
format Article
author Ghazala Rasheed
Muzafar Khan
Noman Malik
Adnan Akhunzada
author_facet Ghazala Rasheed
Muzafar Khan
Noman Malik
Adnan Akhunzada
author_sort Ghazala Rasheed
title Measuring Learnability through Virtual Reality Laboratory Application: A User Study
title_short Measuring Learnability through Virtual Reality Laboratory Application: A User Study
title_full Measuring Learnability through Virtual Reality Laboratory Application: A User Study
title_fullStr Measuring Learnability through Virtual Reality Laboratory Application: A User Study
title_full_unstemmed Measuring Learnability through Virtual Reality Laboratory Application: A User Study
title_sort measuring learnability through virtual reality laboratory application: a user study
publisher MDPI
publishDate 2021
url https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32103/1/Measuring%20Learnability%20through%20Virtual%20Reality%20Laboratory%20Application.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32103/2/Measuring%20Learnability%20through%20Virtual%20Reality%20Laboratory%20Application1.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32103/
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/19/10812
https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910812
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score 13.211869