Design Aspects of a Virtual Reality Learning Environment to Assess Knowledge Transfer in Science

Abstract

Science educators need assessment tools to assess to what extent learners’ knowledge and skills can be transferred to real-life situations. Virtual reality learning environments (VRLEs) can be used to create authentic virtual spaces where situated learning and assessment can take place. However, there are considerable design and implementation challenges when developing a VRLE. This research explored the design aspects of a virtual reality environment for the assessment of knowledge transfer in science education. A design science research approach was followed, implementing existing guidelines from literature in building a VRLE. Lessons learned from the implementation were formulated, and the theoretical contribution of this study is a set of literature-based, practice evaluated guidelines, synthesising lessons learned. From the study, it is apparent that there are many benefits from using a VRLE for assessment, and we hope that using these guidelines could mitigate some of the usability issues that remain.