Investigating Spatial Representation of Learning Content in Virtual Reality Learning Environments

A recent surge in the application of Virtual Reality in education has made VR Learning Environments (VRLEs) prevalent in fields ranging from aviation, medicine, and skill training to teaching factual and conceptual content. In spite of multiple 3D affordances provided by VR, learning content placement in VRLEs has been mostly limited to a static placement in the environment. We conduct two studies to investigate the effect of different spatial representations of learning content in virtual environments on learning outcomes and user experience. In the first study, we studied the effects of placing content at four different places - world-anchored (TV screen placed in the environment), user-anchored (panel anchored to the wrist or head-mounted display of the user) and object-anchored (panel anchored to the object associated with current content) - in the VR environment with forty-two participants in the context of learning how to operate a laser cutting machine through an immersive tutorial. In the follow-up study, twenty-two participants from this study were given the option to choose from these four placements to understand their preferences. The effects of placements were examined on learning outcome measures - knowledge gain, knowledge transfer, cognitive load, user experience, and user preferences. We found that participants preferred user-anchored (controller condition) and object-anchored placement. While knowledge gain, knowledge transfer, and cognitive load were not found to be significantly different between the four conditions, the object-anchored placement scored significantly better than the TV screen and head-mounted display conditions on the user experience scales of attractiveness, stimulation, and novelty.