Effectiveness of Virtual Reality on Learning Engagement: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

With its immersive, interactive, and creative capabilities, virtual reality (VR) has been widely used in educational settings to provide students with challenging real-world experiences. As a result, interest in its effectiveness has grown. The goal of this meta-analysis is to examine how VR technology affects students’ motivation to study. A comprehensive analysis of the literature up to December 2022 revealed 15 randomized controlled trials or quasi-experimental studies. These studies were also coded to examine the moderating effects of their features, such as types of learner engagement, learner stages, learning domains, types of VR technology, and the moderating effect of knowledge types. The results indicate a large effect of VR on student engagement in learning (g=0.85). Furthermore, the findings of the moderator analysis demonstrate that VR has a more significant impact on cognitive engagement, higher education learners, immersive VR experiences, the field of art education, and procedural knowledge learning.