Exploring the Impact of using Social Virtual Reality and Videos as Pre‑Laboratory Preparation on Student Confidence and Interest

Lee Armstrong, University of Kent
Supervised by
Dr Tim Kinnear and Dr Edd Pitt, University of Kent

Last year I introduced ConVRse, a VR social platform I've been developing (More information here). This year during my Master's research year I conducted an experiment to evaluate the impact of using social VR and Videos as a pre-lab preparation task on student confidence and interest. In the experiment Virtual Reality and Video preparational material was created for two different labs that students usually take in Stage 1 Physics.

Different preparational materials require different amounts of effort to produce, but not all preparational materials are created equally, each material is either more passive or more active. If a material is more passive then the student doesn't need to do anything other than watch/read it to take it in. If a material is more active then the student needs to actively do "something" to take it in. The labscript is required by the module. This study will create a fully custom Virtual Reality laboratory, and a Video.

Experiments

The two experiments were selected from the PHYS3700 module. Students are usually assigned to four out of the five, they are then randomly rotated between them. The five different labs are:

  • Exp. A - Rotation Rate of Mercury
  • Exp. B - Stress and Strain
  • Exp. C - Deduction of a Law
  • Exp. D - Probability
  • Exp. F - Diffraction Grating Spectrometer
In this case Exp.C and Exp.F were selected because I thought they would be the simplest to make material for. Exp.C was selected for the Virtual Reality material, and Exp.F was selected for the Video material.

Exp.C - Deduction of a Law

In this experiment the goal is to calculate the acceleration due to gravity g, This is done by swinging a range of different plates like a pendulum. You are given a range of different plates that vary in size, depth, and density; you will find that only the size of the plate matters as it is equivalent to changing the length of a pendulum.

Exp.F - Diffraction Grating Spectrometer

In this experiment the goal is to verify the spectral lines for different gases is where you expect them to be. You are given a couple of diffraction gratings and you just need to measure what angles each of the spectral lines can be seen at, and which colour.

The Virtual Reality Lab Material

The Virtual lab was designed to be a simplistic well organised space with tables with everything the students would need on them. There are useful posters around the room to help direct you on how to use the equipment inside the room. A labscript is included within the virtual space to help remind the students of their goal. There is also a whiteboard to allow students to take notes during the lab. This lab is designed to be done in pairs.

Click images to enlarge:

Table with an unmovable timer and pendulum stand: This is where you swing the plates. The yellow ball allows you to angle the plate. There is also a digital vernier caliper and metal ruler.
Table with different plastic plates on it. Each colour varies in density.
Table with different plastic plates on it. Each plate varies in Depth/Thickness.
Table with different metal plates on it. Each plate varies in size.
Top down view of the Virtual Lab.
A view of the all the useful tables in the virtual lab with the helpful posters behind.
A virtual version of the lab script.
Functional whiteboard, allowing the participants to take notes during the session.
The whiteboards pen and eraser.
Respawn button used to set all the items back to their original locations. Useful if you lose them.
A small plant in a pot, it doesn't do anything relevant, but can be useful for learning to pick stuff up.

The Video Material

The video material was created to contain tips on how to use the diffraction grating spectrometer, and included things that the labs demonstrator warned me that students always get confused about. The video also included examples on how to read the equipment as this wasn't super clear in the labscript.

The full video can be found here.

The Surveys

Surveys were ran using Qualtrics XM as the university recommended it. Participants were all giving unique IDs to anonymise them. The survey questions attempted to gain insights by asking for the participants opinions.

Scheduling

The experiment was designed for 32 participants split into two groups of 16. Unfortunately only 7 students participated split into 5 and 2. The labs ran once every fortnight meaning the whole experiment lasted about a month.

Results

Most students want the video material for all laboratories. Where most students only want the Virtual Reality material for select laboratories. Students reported that this is because they feel that Virtual reality are better for more hands on experiments.

All students felt that the video material had helped them in some way or another. Whereas the VR material helped some students, but some felt it had no real effect.

During the Virtual Reality sessions the Principal Investigator took notes of anything interesting that occurred during the session. The observations have been categorised and tallied up for convenience. The previous result where VR was perceived as less effective than may have been due to how many issues students encountered during the session. The good news is these are all issues that can be resolved for next time!

Conclusions

  • The Virtual Reality Material was far more time consuming to produce compared to the video material.
  • Virtual Reality is exciting, which is a great intrinsic motivator!
  • All participants found the Video Material helpful to them in some way.

Placement Matters

Specifically in the Virtual Reality Lab, it was found that we can guide a students behaviour just by placing the equipment they need to use in strategic locations. For example: take this desk with the timer on one side and pendulum on the other, they are too far apart for a single person to operate easily. Therefore this incentivises teamwork as one student would call other the other to give them a hand. One student on the timer, one swinging the pendulum; This is exactly what we want but we didn't need to give them a single instruction telling them to do so.

Future Research

The Virtual Reality material was quite unguided, some participants suggested that it may have been more useful to them if there were instructions to help guide them.

  • Did this lack of guidence effect the labs effectiveness?
  • Was the video more useful to the student because of the difficulty of the experiment?
  • If we switch what experiment got what type of material would we get the same or different outcome?

Another intersting question for future research is:
Are different types of virtual environment more effective?
This could include environments like:

  • Guided labs
    Virtual labs with guidence either through a demonstrator or an automatic tutorial.
  • Interactive classrooms
    Virtual Classrooms where the teacher can manipulate anything about it! Why not teach on the moon?
  • Exhibits
    Museum styled virtual exhibit.
  • Trips / Tours
    Visit anywhere in the universe with a teacher or alone.
  • Learning Games
    Solo or multiplayer VR games that teach the student material.

If you have any questions feel free to reach out to me.
Thank you for joining me on this journey!