A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Learning Using Virtual Reality and Traditional Educational Methods

Background. Virtual reality technologies (VR) allow users to absorb a lot of visual information in a short time and have become an important feature in education. The advisability of using virtual reality as a tool to improve the learning processes in the modern digital environment is an open question. Despite some studies devoted to assessing the effectiveness of virtual reality applications to the education process, there are no clear conclusions on this issue.

Objective. The study of features of foreign language learning material using VR.

Design. 29 young participants (22 females, 7 males) with a high level of foreign language competence were selected. They received three types of stimuli: text, 2D video, and VR. The efficiency of their learning was tested with questions before and after each experiment. VR stimuli were presented by Samsung Gear VR.

Results. It was shown that “VR” and “Text” conditions were the most efficient material for foreign language learning as compared to the “2D-video” condition. The results also showed a strong negative correlation between the participants’ baseline level of knowledge and their knowledge gain under all experimental conditions.

Conclusion. VR offers an effective method for improving the process of learning, but traditional teaching methods still play an important role in education. Young people in the modern world have developed ways to use the VR as an educational tool.

Acknowledgments: The study was supported by the Russian Federal Property Fund grant No. 18-29-22049.