Collaborative Immersive Virtual Environments for Education in Geography

• Published in: ISPRS international journal of geo-information Vol. 8; no. 1; p. 3
• Main Authors: Šašinka, Čeněk, Stachoň, Zdeněk, Sedlák, Michal, Chmelík, Jiří, Herman, Lukáš, Kubíček, Petr, Šašinková, Alžběta, Doležal, Milan, Tejkl, Hynek, Urbánek, Tomáš, Svatoňová, Hana, Ugwitz, Pavel, Juřík, Vojtěch
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.01.2019
• Subjects: Climate change; Cognition; Cognitive ability; collaborative immersive virtual environment; Collaborative learning; College students; Communication; Computer applications; computer simulation; computer software; Computers; contour lines; Contours; Cooperation; Cultural heritage; cyberpsychology; Design; Dimensions; Education; Empirical analysis; empirical research; focus groups; Gamification; Geography; Head-mounted display; Higher education; human–computer interaction; Hypsography; immersion; Immersive virtual reality; Intelligibility; landscapes; learning; map literacy; Martial arts; Principles; qualitative analysis; Qualitative research; School environment; sense of presence; Social factors; Sociology; Spatial data; telepresence; Three dimensional models; Tsunamis; Two dimensional models; Usability; Virtual environments; Virtual reality
• ISSN: 2220-9964; 2220-9964
• DOI: 10.3390/ijgi8010003

Immersive virtual reality (iVR) devices are rapidly becoming an important part of our lives and forming a new way for people to interact with computers and each other. The impact and consequences of this innovative technology have not yet been satisfactory explored. This empirical study investigated the cognitive and social aspects of collaboration in a shared, immersive virtual reality. A unique application for implementing a collaborative immersive virtual environment (CIVE) was developed by our interdisciplinary team as a software solution for educational purposes, with two scenarios for learning about hypsography, i.e., explanations of contour line principles. Both scenarios allow switching between a usual 2D contour map and a 3D model of the corresponding terrain to increase the intelligibility and clarity of the educational content. Gamification principles were also applied to both scenarios to augment user engagement during the completion of tasks. A qualitative research approach was adopted to obtain a deep insight into the lived experience of users in a CIVE. It was thus possible to form a deep understanding of very new subject matter. Twelve pairs of participants were observed during their CIVE experience and then interviewed either in a semistructured interview or a focus group. Data from these three research techniques were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, which is research method for studying individual experience. Four superordinate themes—with detailed descriptions of experiences shared by numerous participants—emerged as results from the analysis; we called these (1) Appreciation for having a collaborator, (2) The Surprising “Fun with Maps”, (3) Communication as a challenge, and (4) Cognition in two realities. The findings of the study indicate the importance of the social dimension during education in a virtual environment and the effectiveness of dynamic and interactive 3D visualization.