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Engineering Education 4.0 pp 303–314Cite as

Diving in? How Users Experience Virtual Environments using the Virtual Theatre

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Abstract

Simulations are used in various fields of education. One approach of improving learning with simulations is the development of natural user interfaces, e.g. driving or flight simulators. The Virtual Theatre enables unrestricted movement through a virtual environment by a Head Mounted Display and an omnidirectional floor. In the experimental study presented (n = 38), the effects of objective hardware characteristics were being tested in two groups. The task was the same: Remembering positions of objects after spotting them in a maze. One group fulfilled the task in the Virtual Theatre, the other group on a laptop. Personal characteristics (gaming experience, locus of control) and perception measures for immersion (spatial presence, flow) were also assessed. Analyses show that the Virtual Theatre indeed leads to more spatial presence and flow, but has a negative effect on the task performance. This contradicts the common assumption that immersion leads to better learning.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IMA/ZLW & IfU, RWTH Aachen University, Dennewartstr. 27, 52068, Aachen, Germany

    Katharina Schuster, Max Hoffmann, Ursula Bach, Anja Richert & Sabina Jeschke

Authors
  1. Katharina Schuster
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  2. Max Hoffmann
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  3. Ursula Bach
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  4. Anja Richert
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  5. Sabina Jeschke
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katharina Schuster .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. VVP, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Sulamith Frerich

  2. IMA/ZLW & IfU, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    Tobias Meisen

  3. IMA/ZLW & IfU, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    Anja Richert

  4. Lehrstuhl für Feststoffverfahrenstechnik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Marcus Petermann

  5. IMA/ZLW & IfU, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    Sabina Jeschke

  6. Zentrum für HochschulBildung, Technische Universität Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany

    Uwe Wilkesmann

  7. Institut für Umformtechnik & Leichtbau, Technische Universität Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany

    A. Erman Tekkaya

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Schuster, K., Hoffmann, M., Bach, U., Richert, A., Jeschke, S. (2016). Diving in? How Users Experience Virtual Environments using the Virtual Theatre. In: Frerich, S., et al. Engineering Education 4.0. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46916-4_24

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