Abstract

The merger of game-based approaches and Virtual Reality (VR) environments that can enhance learning and training methodologies have a very promising future, reinforced by the widespread market-availability of affordable software and hardware tools for VR-environments. Rather than passive observers, users engage in those learning environments as active participants, permitting the development of exploration-based learning paradigms. There are separate reviews of VR technologies and serious games for educational and training purposes with a focus on only one knowledge area. However, this review covers 135 proposals for serious games in immersive VR-environments that are combinations of both VR and serious games and that offer end-user validation. First, an analysis of the forum, nationality, and date of publication of the articles is conducted. Then, the application domains, the target audience, the design of the game and its technological implementation, the performance evaluation procedure, and the results are analyzed. The aim here is to identify the factual standards of the proposed solutions and the differences between training and learning applications. Finally, the study lays the basis for future research lines that will develop serious games in immersive VR-environments, providing recommendations for the improvement of these tools and their successful application for the enhancement of both learning and training tasks.

Highlights

  • Sutherland described “The Ultimate Display” [146] as “a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter”, clearly underlining the immense potential of technologicalElectronic supplementary material The online version of this article contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.Multimedia Tools and Applications (2020) 79:5501–5527 innovation to enhance the learning rates of almost any professional skills training

  • There is one common conclusion presented in all the articles under analysis: user satisfaction is higher with the Virtual Reality (VR)-Serious Games (SGs) experience than with other learning methodologies

  • This conclusion justifies the guiding principle that higher learning rates and skills improvement can be expected from Virtual Reality Serious Games (VR-SGs), in comparison with traditional learning and training methods

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Summary

Introduction

Virtual Reality (VR) environments have been excluded from educational settings, due to the high cost of VR equipment. Their usage over the past 50 years has been restricted to military applications and research institutes [162]. Educational researchers have described any educational experience that introduces the user to visual and auditory experiences as a “virtual world”. The reviews on these topics have underlined both learning [72, 120] methods that employ conventional computer graphics on a monitor or other 2D displays. This concept of virtual worlds is nowadays categorized as low-immersive VR

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