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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

Using VR, students can learn about the cells in the human body while “travelling” into the bloodstream, or “explore” the degree of plastic pollution in the oceans. They can also conduct complicated experiments using expensive lab-equipment and dangerous chemicals, just by putting on a pair of VR-goggles that immediately offers very realistic and lively experiences.

[...] But the rapid growth of VR-technology in teaching is a new and relatively un-tested field, and at the University of Copenhagen Associate Professor in Psychology Guido Makransky investigates how, why, and in what settings VR-learning provides an advantage over traditional methods and media, so society´s investments in VR-technology can be used in the most beneficial way.

[...] In a study with 66 7th and 8th -grade students (half boys, half girls) at a Danish science talent school, Makransky and colleagues found that the girls learned most in the VR-simulations, when the VR-teacher there was a young, female researcher named Marie, whereas the boys learned more, while being instructed by a flying robot in the form of a drone.

Not mentioned in the article: What other "teacher" figures were tested. Did they try male teachers? Anthropomorphic rabbits? Disembodied voices?

A Gender Matching Effect in Learning with Pedagogical Agents in an Immersive Virtual Reality Science Simulation DOI: 10.1111/jcal.12335

Source: https://news.ku.dk/all_news/2019/virtual-reality-research/

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