Educators’ Perceptions of the Use of Virtual Reality in the Classroom: Psychometric Validation of Scale in Indian Context

Abstract

With ample evidence supporting the benefits of using Virtual Reality (VR) in education, teachers' perceptions of such educational innovations decide whether they are accepted or rejected and, if accepted, how successfully they are integrated into teaching. However, there is a dearth of literature with regard to the availability of a suitable measurement tool to gauge their perception specifically in the Indian setting. This is the research gap that is aimed to be met and the novelty of the study. Based on the theory of Diffusion of Innovations and the Technology Acceptance Model, the study aimed to validate Educators' Perceptions of the use of VR on Classroom scale, adapted by Khukalenko et al. (2022) from Wozney et al. (2006). The original version was tested among Russian educators and had 16 items on a six-point Likert-scale format with a Cronbach’s Alpha of 1.00. The investigators here conducted the validation process on a sample of 150 Indian university educators. Because it is a relatively new scale and is based on a strong theory, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) alone remained adequate for its validation in India. By using IBM SPSS and AMOS for data analysis, the factor structure of the initial model led to the deletion of eight items due to low factor loading values. The second model, however, suggested a satisfactory fit of this unidimensional scale with eight items and yielded a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.843. It is, therefore, a reliable tool for measuring teachers' perception of the use of VR in the Indian context.