The use of Virtual Reality in Enhancing Interdisciplinary Research and Education

TL;DR

This paper explores how Virtual Reality can enhance interdisciplinary research and education by reviewing theories, classifying VR systems, evaluating applications across disciplines, and comparing VR with traditional teaching methods.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review, taxonomy, and evaluation of VR applications in interdisciplinary education and research, highlighting its potential benefits and impacts.

Findings

VR supports interactive and collaborative learning activities.

VR can improve engagement and understanding compared to traditional methods.

Different VR implementations have varied effectiveness across disciplines.

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly being recognized for its educational potential and as an effective way to convey new knowledge to people, it supports interactive and collaborative activities. Affordable VR powered by mobile technologies is opening a new world of opportunities that can transform the ways in which we learn and engage with others. This paper reports our study regarding the application of VR in stimulating interdisciplinary communication. It investigates the promises of VR in interdisciplinary education and research. The main contributions of this study are (i) literature review of theories of learning underlying the justification of the use of VR systems in education, (ii) taxonomy of the various types and implementations of VR systems and their application in supporting education and research (iii) evaluation of educational applications of VR from a broad range of disciplines, (iv) investigation of how the learning process and learning outcomes are affected by VR systems, and (v) comparative analysis of VR and traditional methods of teaching in terms of quality of learning. This study seeks to inspire and inform interdisciplinary researchers and learners about the ways in which VR might support them and also VR software developers to push the limits of their craft.