EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRTUAL REALITY IN THE MOTIVATIONAL PROCESSES OF LEARNERS
Résumé
This brief article reports on the use of virtual reality and its effectiveness on
improving and maintaining learners' intrinsic motivation or interest. Research
suggests that interest contributes to learning. Therefore a study of the impact
of interests is essential to an understanding of intrinsic motivation. Since the
virtual environment provides a sense of presence, it may be possible to create
scenarios to stimulate the learners' curiosity and interest.
Eighteen students, 11 males and 7 females, between 21 and 32 years old,
served as subjects for the study. The experiment consisted of the physical world
environment using wooden blocks, and the virtual world using virtual blocks.
Both worlds used color and shape as variables. The two variables consisted of
three shapes (sphere, pyramid, and cube), and three colors (red, green, and
blue). In both worlds, the wooden blocks and virtual blocks had to be
manipulated and arranged in nine different patterns.
The first experiment started with a two-block pattern. At each step the difficulty
was increased by increasing the number of blocks. The subject's score was
based on a ten-point scale instrument administered at the end of each
experiment. The scores ranged from very weak to very strong. The results were
used to identify a significant difference between the subjects' performance in
the virtual world and in physical world with respect to curiosity, interest, and
sense of control.
The interest level comparison indicated that for all subjects scores in the virtual
world were always higher than the scores in the physical world. The sense of
control level comparison indicated that in the beginning scores in the virtualworld were not always higher than the scores in the physical world. However,
after orientation to navigation through the virtual environment, the mean score
gradually rose. This research demonstrates that the virtual world is more useful
than the physical world (with respect of color and shape) in increasing the
memory span of the learner.