users in a Virtual Reality environment have the
opportunity to experience imaginary situations or
situations of the past (such as historic events recreated
in VR), turn off gravity in an environment and
immerse in ways that are not possible in real life (Jalo
et al., 2020), offering flexibility for repetition and
self-pacing (Jonassen 1991). Additionally, this
manipulation of the context of interaction in space
and time (Bailenson et al. 2006) enables participants
to go back in conversations with other users, pause an
action, activity or situation and continue again only
when they feel like doing it (Bailenson et al. 2006).
Theoretical Principle #4: Virtual reality is best
absorbed socially.
One of the tremendous recent opportunities of VR
relates to the multi-user perspective. Many recent
applications make it possible for multiple users to
enter the same virtual environment (Jalo et al., 2020).
The social interaction among participants in the
collaborative learning group has as an effect the
development of greater social skills, while learners
get together to know each other and solve problems
collaboratively (Huang et al., 2010).
Adding to this, Roussou (2004) also argues that
interactivity in learning, with other people and with
virtual artefacts, is a fundamental mechanism both for
the acquisition of knowledge and for the development
of important cognitive and physical skills (Roussou,
2004).
Virtual Reality Technologies can provide the
space for people to interact with each other without
the limitations of the physical world (Lanier 1992;
LaValle 2020). The use of Virtual Reality allows us
to adjust and alter the way we see and approach
interpersonal communication in novel ways that we
could not achieve in reality, boosting social
cooperation and interaction (Bailenson et al. 2006;
Bailenson et al. 2004).
Theoretical Principle #5: Learning by doing instead
of reading about it.
According to the constructivist approach, a user
learns efficiently when he actively constructs
knowledge out of the engagement in meaningful
activities that are important for him/her (Roussou,
2004), drawing information based on prior
experiences. Constructivism is widely admitted as the
driving force for the development of highly
interactive environments, where the user actively
tests, modifies, builds, and tests ideas (Roussou,
2004). These perspectives have affected the
improvement of intelligent and virtual learning
situations, which appear to connect well to the
"learning by doing" and "hands-on" educational
practices.
Dede (2009) argues that the real power of VR is
in situated learning. That is when the user can live
through and interact in a situation they are learning
about. Also, since virtual reality advancements give a
wide scope of opportunities for this sort of
intelligence and backing for dynamic investment in
the development of the substance, they become
appropriate, incredible media for use by educational
institutions at large, galleries and edutainment
focuses (Roussou, 2004).
It is also argued that interactivity is probably the
most important property of a virtual reality
environment as VR provides the user with the means
to "feel" the experience, and feel placed in a scene
while engaging with the surrounding environment
(Roussou, 2004). In this perspective, a VR
environment allows free exploration and
manipulation of artefacts in a virtual environment,
and can also provide feedback or interaction with
other learners via visual, auditory, tactile, and/or
kinaesthetic cues by other participating learners
(Chen et al., 2009). Therefore, VR interfaces should
function based on the user's commands, without
attempting to control the user and interfere in the
learning process (Sutcliffe, 2013).
Theoretical Principle #6: Allow sense-making by
taking multiple perspectives in VR.
VR is known to allow users to view the environment
and objects therein from multiple perspectives in
order to gain a comprehensive understanding of their
surroundings (Chen et al. 2009). The user can view
the virtual environment and objects there from a first-
person view, or alternatively, from a birds-eye (Dede,
2009). There are no boundaries in this regard.
Specifically, through the interaction of a user in a
three-dimensional environment multiple viewpoints
of a known or unknown situation can be faced. This
way, a user can focus or exclude specific elements in
a virtual environment that may interrupt one from the
primary importance. The independent controlled
viewpoint for each learner may also vary, depending
on the interests and scope of use of VR (Chen et al.
2009).
However, the immersion level of a user to the
Virtual Reality environment is also related to user’s
capacity to adopt the nonexistent environment and is
dependent to factors such as the type of equipment,
the degree of realism of the application, the activities
to be implemented in the environment by the user,
and the user’s motivation to participate in the
simulation (Fox et al. 2009).