Exploring Immersive Learning: 360° Pictures for General Education Classes (ABU)

Duration: March 2022 – December 2024
Status: Completed
Educational Level: Upper Secondary Level – Vocational Education
Topic: Digital Tools
Keywords: 360° Pictures for General Education Classes (ABU), VR – Virtual Reality

Intital Situation

360° picture technology is becoming increasingly popular and is a promising tool for enhancing education, especially for general education classes. General education classes (ABU) provide broad, practical, thematic, and action-oriented knowledge. The interdisciplinary subject includes the learning areas “Society” and “Language + Communication”. The young learners deal with important questions and problems of the present and the future and develop the ability to understand things and facts, to recognize connections and to describe and evaluate causes and effects. ABU classes help them to develop their personalities and to become responsible members of a democratic society. In this context, 360° picture technology can be helpful to facilitate the simulation of real-life scenarios – related for example to the topic about how to rent an apartment – allowing users to immerse themselves in virtual environments and develop a sense of presence that can lead to better learning outcomes.

Objectives

This study evaluates VET students’ performance with VR using head-mounted displays and explores the influences of sense of presence, motivation, and flow experience on their performance compared with a desktop computer-based approach. The objective is to determine the extent to which performance is influenced by immersion, and in particular by the students’ sense of presence, motivation, and flow experience as induced by VR through the use of head-mounted displays. Furthermore, this study aims to investigate the potential interplay between these factors.

Method

A quasi-experimental study with a randomized controlled trial design was conducted with 81 participants split in two conditions (immersive vs desktop exploration of the VR environment). Following an instruction of how to identify housing defects, the participants were required to identify the defects in a virtual apartment and communicate them verbally by thinking aloud. All details available in the related publication (Keller et al., 2025).

Results

The findings indicated that using VR with head-mounted displays led to a notable enhancement in performance when compared with the desktop approach: participants found significantly more housing defects in this condition than when looking for such defects using the desktop application. Motivation and sense of presence were identified as critical factors for improving outcomes. The study also revealed a complex relationship between sense of presence and performance, with neither motivation nor flow experience acting as direct mediators. These findings contribute to our understanding of the impact of VR on VET learning outcomes and provide insights for future research and practice. However, further investigation is needed to elucidate the advantages and intricacies of incorporating immersive technologies into educational settings.

Implemented Translation

The study was conducted from the beginning in collaboration with the Bildungszentrum Limmattal, Zürich, where data collection also took place. All the resources developed (including the VR environment, but also the full pedagogical scenario and its learning materials) have been put at disposal of all VET teachers interested. Training activities at SFUVET with teacher students in ABU and in other tracks already integrate the presentation of this experience and its results. This project has created a comprehensive pedagogical scenario freely available to teachers, who are implementing it in several school sites. In this respect, the project is promoting the use of immersive technologies in vocational schools. From a research perspective, the project contributes to the investigation of the relationship between sense of presence, motivation and learning outcomes.

Participating Institutions