This research analyses the potential of the use of a virtual reality app developed by the same university in the context of providing an immersive student-teacher and student-student interaction space that replicates the Huancayo campus and the university's classrooms that allows to overcome the nostalgia of not "attending" the university campus and having a digital means of interaction. For the evaluation of the same, an adapted questionnaire was administered to the students from the subject who attended regularly and to the teacher an interview about the benefits and difficulties arising from the use of the app. The results reveal a high degree of student satisfaction on the scales consulted: dynamization of the teaching-learning process, personal relationships, motivation and content acquisition; the biggest drawback manifested stems from the student's connectivity and data plan for greater dedication and usage.
In 2016, only 2% of U.S. teachers had used VR in their classes, up from 60% who
intended to incorporate it as part of the educational process [
Virtual reality doesn't have a single concept; for example, we can cite three interesting
conceptualizations; [
For [
This work is primarily aimed at highlighting the potential of using a virtual reality app
in higher education. To do this, an experience has been designed consisting of
student-teacher and student-student interaction in a classroom on the Huancayo
campus replicated in 3D through virtual reality. In total, four learning sessions were
held in this virtual space for student-teacher interaction and the space was open
throughout the academic period to facilitate student-student interaction; participants
were the students and the teacher of the Business Solutions Development subject of
the Professional Career in Business Engineering. In the first class through this app,
five questions were asked to students in order to know the resources and previous
knowledge. 80% of students had a computer, 90% had a smartphone and 93.5% had
an Internet connection, 10% who did not have a smartphone used the Nox emulator
(see Fig. 1). As far as virtual reality is concerned, only 15% knew or had notions of
what virtual reality is, only 3 out of the 32 students had participated before in some
virtual reality experience, in both cases through video games. Based on these results,
it can be said that students are especially receptive to the use of new technologies, but
this does not mean that everyone is digitally trained for the use and exploitation of all
tools. Therefore, the first class had to be dedicated to explain the various access
methods (smartphone and Nox emulator). In the last session, a survey was applied to
know the perception of student satisfaction in five topics (student participation,
dynamization of the teaching-learning process, social relations, motivation and
content acquisition).
The simulated experience is to generate a virtual space that facilitates interaction in
learning and is a major part of the teaching-learning process. Actually, as noted by
[
As for student-teacher interaction, the essential part that is always motivating for a
culture where the teacher's figure and intellectual opinion is appreciated is reflected in
the facilitator's interaction with his students [
As for student-student interaction, the “best means of promoting learning is the
interaction that occurs between several apprentices” [
As Moreno points out [
The application makes use of a local database serialized in binary format,
consisting of several files stored within the persistent folder on the device where the
application is running. Each new scene will have its own data file, there will also be a
local file to store the data requested from the remote Playfab server, which is a BAAS
(back-end as a service). Finally, some application metric data is sent to Unity
Analytics, a business intelligence service. The application requires Internet access to
communicate with the Playfab and Unity Analytics servers. At the design level, it
should be noted that it was designed in 3D from the plan of the physical campus of
the university and the one-person tables and chairs, doors, curtains, among other
elements are similar to the shapes, colors and textures of these elements of the campus
in Huancayo.
In Fig. 4, an interface for the logging and registration of new users is shown.
Finally, Fig. 5 shows a simulated class in the app within a classroom that is also a
replica of a physical classroom, in which the user interface is observed and options for
managing the quality of the resolution of the the 3D components, scrolling controls,
microphone, and viewfinder mode in any glasses that support the placement of the
smartphone within these glasses.
This research was aimed at knowing the assessment that students and teachers make
of the app in a subject, in relation to the promotion of participation, the dynamization
of the teaching-learning process, social relations, motivation and the acquisition of
content in their training as future teachers. For the evaluation of learning experiences,
a questionnaire was administered to the students of the subject, adapted from Durán
[
These items offer 4 response options, with the intention of forcing the student to lean in one direction their rating. The four possible alternatives are: totally agree, moderately agreed, moderately disagreed and totally disagreed. The questionnaire is completed with 4 overall rating questions of the app, which students had to answer by completing a score scale between 0 (minimum negative value) and 10 (maximum positive rating). The questionnaires were answered voluntarily and anonymously by the students. In total, the students who participated and collaborated in the research were 28. The data analysis mainly used univariate descriptive statistics techniques, mainly percentages and central trend (average) statistics using the SPSS statistical program for Windows. The teacher's assessment was based on an open interview with two issues related to the benefits and difficulties identified in the use of the app, taking particular attention to the five topics that constituted the scales of the student questionnaire.
The information obtained in the student survey refer to very favorable results and a
high degree of satisfaction in the five topics (scales) consulted.
• On scale 1 (student participation) student participation was valued considering
visits and entries in the virtual reality app. An acceptable number of the app’s visits
to interact with your peers is reflected. 90% of respondents entered the app for
student-student interaction; and 100% of them entered the app for student-teacher
interaction classes.
• In the analysis of scale 2 (dynamization of the process teaching - learning) we can
highlight the excellent assessment that students make of the app as an dynamizing
tool of the teaching-learning process; thus, it exceeds 90% those that indicate that it
stimulates the follow-up of the subject, stimulates the search for new information
on the subject, facilitates the expression of ideas and opinions on current topics
related to the subject, encourages the participation of students in the subject,
promotes critical thinking and promotes creative thinking. The item "the app favors
the resolution of doubts regarding the subject" receives a less high rating, although
with a positive trend; 30.4% express moderately disagree with such a proposition.
• The current education system generated by the pandemic has limited the
development of social competences. The analysis of scale 3 on social relationships
sets an opposite trend, clearly indicating that students perceive that the app
promotes personal relationships, establishing new modalities of teaching-student
relationship, as well as increasing the possibilities of contact between the group of
students. Thus, over 80% students who appear to be totally or moderately in
agreement on proposals such as: facilitates contact with the teacher; enhances
collaboration with the teacher; facilitates communication between students;
encourages personal relationships with peers; encourages the student to feel part of
the group; stimulates new forms of relationship. It stands out that 93.5% perceive
that the app favors the interaction and collaborative work of the students.
• Scale 4 (motivation) represents the results of students in the face of the app usage
as a tool that favors motivation. None of the included propositions gets negative
assessment, presenting, on the contrary, a clearly positive trend in relation to
fostering interest in healthy habits, deepening the subject, performing activities of
the subject, using new technologies.
• With the last scale, it is intended to know the suitability of the app in the
acquisition of content. One of the most positive aspects of the use of this resource
in teaching is that it facilitates the acquisition of specific content of the subject,
both theoretical and practical; positive attitudes to educational innovations and
practice as future teachers; the development of less specific knowledge (relating to
New Technologies), and, fundamentally, in this information society, is that to the
88.8% it favors the construction of new knowledge, new thoughts.
• Finally, with regards to the global issues about the app and its usage (on a scale of
0 to 10) students make a remarkable assessment of the app as a tool (X̄ = 7.1); they
significantly rate (X̄ = 8.2) the teacher's use and value their participation by 7.5.
Finally, we find that they consider positive (X̄ = 7.8) the interest that, to them, have
the virtual reality app in teaching practice.
• The teacher welcomes positively the experience, he believes that students have
improved competencies such as: increased interest in health education, better
selflearning capacity and greater responsibility. She recognizes the existence of
meaningful learning and states that she improved the abilities not only of the
students but also of herself.
• Regarding the difficulties, the teacher identified that not all students have a
smartphone and that most of them have recurring frequencies of slow internet
during the day or with limited megabytes, which restricts or limits the usability of
the app. only 20% of students have a virtual reality goggle that gives them an even
more immersive experience.
5 Conclusions
• First, the use of the virtual reality application contributed to generating
participation processes, assuming high rates of student participation; The use of the
application as an educational resource has impacted, opens up and brings them
closer to participation channels and offers them new perspectives inside and
outside the classroom, coinciding with similar research results [
Students obtain benefits when using the 3D application, since their interests and
motivation increase due to the interaction and feedback with their classmates and
teachers, this conclusion is reinforced with similar results and research conclusions
[
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