Towards Measuring User Experience, Activation and Task Performance in Immersive Virtual Learning Environments for Studen

The technological progress in the field of Virtual Reality (VR) facilitates the availability and applicability in learning scenarios. Applying VR technologies in a virtual environment (VE) can further intensify the students’ learning experience to a more

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Abstract. The technological progress in the field of Virtual Reality (VR) facilitates the availability and applicability in learning scenarios. Applying VR technologies in a virtual environment (VE) can further intensify the students’ learning experience to a more immersive and engaging involvement in the learning process. In order to use immersive virtual learning environments (VLE) in high school and higher education as a teaching and learning tool, first it has to be assessed which individual-related variables influence the VLE experience and in which way the user experience (UX) affects task performance in VLEs. The paper describes the concept of a specific VLE using Minecraft as a setup for a research study. Furthermore, the research design is outlined. The paper describes the conducted pretest of the study and presents preliminary results of the pretest. Keywords: Immersive learning  User experience  Virtual reality  Higher education  Virtual learning environment  Immersion  Presence  Minecraft

1 Introduction Due to the technological development within society and industry driven by the Industry 4.0, new demands and competences are required of employees nowadays. The term Industry 4.0 has emerged in Germany within the high-tech strategy of the German government in order to demonstrate the potential of the fourth industrial revolution [1]. Herman et al. [2, p. 8] stated “that Industry 4.0 is ‘a collective term for technologies and concepts of value chain organization’ with the four key components of Cyber Physical Systems, Internet of Things, Internet of Services and Smart Factory.” The term is spreading out to other fields, even in the field of Education 4.0 or Teaching and IMA – Institute of Information Management in Mechanical Engineering; ZLW – Center for Learning and Knowledge Management; IfU – Associated Institute for Management Cybernetics e.V. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 C. Allison et al. (Eds.): iLRN 2016, CCIS 621, pp. 45–58, 2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-41769-1_4

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Learning 4.0. In context of education, future employees have to be prepared for the changes in working environment [3], which ideally start in school or high school. Highly individualized and specific processes as well as a more extensive HumanComputer-Interaction (HCI) shape the future working environments. Currently, practical experiences and the relevance of theoretical knowledge is often an underrepresented field in education [4]. Therefore, real-world experiences are one major requirement in the context of education in order to prepare students for their future working life. In some courses, practical experiences are acquired in laboratories [5]. However, they are not available for all students at any times. Due to high costs, complexity or their dangerous nature, some areas of studies are not feasible in real laboratories. Virtual environments (VE) thus provide a chance by enabling all students to gather these experiences. Advances in 3D virtual environments and VR technology facilitate

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