dc.description.abstract | Virtual Reality (VR) learning environments can provide more immersive learning experiences, enhancing the sense of reality and interactivity in learning. This research utilizes online VR to establish a distance learning environment, supporting students in collaborative, project-based learning through online VR. Departing from traditional teacher-centric instructional methods, this research encourages peer communication and cooperation, enabling students to cultivate self-directed learning within VR co-creation and achieve socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL) through collaborative creation. Collaboration scripts serve as specific scaffolding for collaborative learning, offering a series of guidelines on how to interact, cooperate, and solve problems. They are frequently utilized in the collaborative learning environment to facilitate effective communication, coordination, and collaboration among group members to achieve SSRL. Individuals must possess a specific set of skills, called "21st-century skills," to thrive in modern society. VR co-creation can provide an environment that promotes learners′ collaboration, creativity and problem-solving skills, which can help develop 21st-century skills and make learning more immersive and meaningful.
This research employed a quasi-experimental design, with the participants being sixth-grade students from a primary school in southern Taiwan. Four classes with 106 students were divided into two experimental groups (53 students) and two control groups (53 students). Each class was further divided into 13 groups, resulting in 52 groups. The research utilized the Curriculum Guidelines of 12-Year Basic Education for VR co-creation learning activities, which lasted for seven weeks, with one class session per week, approximately 40 minutes. Throughout the experiment, students engaged in online courses and conducted group discussions using an online platform. However, due to the students′ young age, they could not complete the tasks independently. Therefore, appropriate online collaboration scripts were designed as scaffolding for this research. The experimental group utilized the online discussion platform with the integrated collaboration script, while the control group did not use any collaboration script. All participants completed two VR projects. During the experiment, researchers captured the students′ learning processes on the online discussion platform and presented them through data visualization. This interactive visual dashboard enabled students to understand their level of participation and their peers′ engagement in the classroom, facilitating a quicker grasp of the key concepts. Teachers could utilize the visual dashboard to monitor individual students′ learning progress and provide personalized guidance. The research results indicated that VR co-creation enhanced students′ learning achievement, and implementing an online collaboration script showed significant improvements.
In this research, a control group of students improved overall 21st-century skills compared with an experimental group. However, the experimental group exhibited significant improvement in communication and expression abilities. Although no improvement in the students′ self-regulation was observed, the control group had a higher level of engagement in this respect than did the experimental group because the students in the experimental group followed the steps outlined in the online collaboration script, which limited their engagement in a virtual reality task.
This research also analyzed students′ learning behaviors by using behavioral sequences and observed that most of the students in the experimental group followed the online collaboration script to complete their projects. In contrast, the control group followed the teacher′s instructions to complete their projects. The results indicate that using the online collaboration script improved cognitive aspects, whereas not using the online collaboration script improved affective aspects. Based on this research, the first half of courses should incorporate an online collaboration script as scaffolding. In the second half, the online collaboration script can be gradually phased out to enable students to learn and facilitate interaction. | en_US |