The study of reactive and active modes of educational communication in the process of solving educational tasks by students in a virtual reality environment

Abstract

Introduction. The introduction of virtual technologies into the vocational training system makes it urgent to solve the task of adjusting communication in a situation where the student is in a virtual reality environment, while the teacher is in the real world. The research purpose is to study the role of two types of educational communication (reactive and active ones) with a student solving an educational task in a virtual reality environment, taking into account the gaming experience and the dominant type of student's perception. Materials and methods. During the laboratory experiment with the use of virtual reality headsets, the skill of hand-eye coordination was worked out on a sample of undergraduate teacher-training students (N=36). The author's questionnaire was used to assess the gaming experience, the dominant type of student's perception was assessed using the VARK Questionnaire (Version 7.8) by N. Fleming and S. Mills. The reliability of the data obtained was assessed using the chi-square test and the Student's t-test. Research results. There are no statistically significant differences between the groups of reactive and active communication in all indicators, with the exception of the experience of getting acquainted with virtual reality. The number of questions regarding the methods and sequence of performing game actions in the reactive group was the greatest (2.28), the same indicator in the group with active communication was insignificant (0.40). In the group with reactive communication, the subjects asked twice as many questions as in the group with active communication (4.78 and 2.44, respectively). Conclusions. The results confirm the hypothesis that the reactive and active modes of educational communication play different roles in the interaction between the teacher and the student. The dominant type of student's perception does not affect the process of organizing educational communication in a virtual reality environment. It is useful to take into account the results obtained at the stage of support of students' educational activities in a virtual reality environment in the context of providing active and reactive assistance by the teacher.