Developing a hands‐on activity using virtual reality to help students learn by doing

Abstract

This study combined virtual reality (VR) technology, the 6E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Engineer, Enrich, and Evaluate) model, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education to develop a hands‐on activity aimed at helping students to achieve “learning by doing.” The participants were 162 tenth‐grade students, divided into the Experimental Group (hands‐on activity using VR technology) and the Control Group (hands‐on activity via lectures). Using sequential analysis, this study investigated how the hands‐on activity influenced the students' behavioral patterns in learning. The results showed that all of the students' learning performances and hands‐on abilities were enhanced. Moreover, the students who used VR technology achieved both significantly better learning performances and hands‐on abilities, indicating that VR might be able to help the students understand abstract scientific concepts and build mental models, which they used to internalize and organize knowledge structures. Furthermore, this study discovered that the students who learned using VR technology formed a cyclical learning pattern, starting with a group discussion (G), moving on to solving problems (S) and developing a product (D), and then going back to another group discussion. However, the students who learned via lectures produced a linear learning pattern in the order of G→S→D.

Lay Description

What is already known about this topic:

• The VR provides students with the visualization of abstract concepts and novel points of view that is impossible to display in a real environment.

• STEM knowledge can be integrated into hands‐on activities to foster students' core competencies through engineering design and producing procedures.

What this paper adds:

• Used VR technology, 6E model, and STEM education to design a hands‐on learning activity.

• In the activity, students learned how to solve problems, modify their product, and enhance their quadcopter's operational performance, which was a specific representation of “learning by doing.”

Implications for practise and/or policy:

• This study combined VR, the 6E model, and STEM education to develop a hands‐on activity to improve students' abstract scientific concepts, interdisciplinary knowledge, and hands‐on ability.

• The differences of the learning behaviour patterns during the hands‐on process between the VR technology and lectures were also found.