Virtual reality improves student engagement – but only for 45 minutes

Virtual reality boosts student engagement and social presence in education – but only for about 45 minutes before fatigue sets in, a new MSU-Stanford study has found.

I remember during the pandemic questioning the legitimacy of remote learning for vocations like dentistry, mechanics, or electrical engineering.

My query got rebuffed pretty quickly with the suggestion of virtual reality, but I had this vexing assumption that the takeup in universities was slow.

Big tech like Meta and Apple have bet big on VR being the future of education, and the debate rages on.

There’s also a lack of data on the metrics of VR's effectiveness in the classroom. Luckily, researchers at MSU and Stanford have helped plug the gap a bit.

Testing VR’s learning limits

Researchers set up a 15-week study consisting of 80-minute classes, including both teleconference learning and virtual reality.

Most of the students were new to VR and not avid enthusiasts – a key attributor for interpreting the results.

The benefits that were tracked in the trial were perceived learning, competence, and enjoyment.

At around the 45-minute mark, however, the benefits began to decline. VR fatigue began to set in, though this varied significantly among individuals in a broad range of 20 minutes to 280 minutes.

"Class meetings in VR improve social connectivity and enjoyment – at least until the detrimental effects of virtual meeting fatigue build up and become harder to manage,”

said Rabindra “Robby” Ratan, associate professor of media and information, and AT&T Endowed Chair in the MSU College of Communication Arts and Sciences.

Active learning beats fatigue

The researchers found that the social presence of other students helped buffer the fatigue students felt when engaging with virtual reality. Nonetheless, it faded after a few minutes.

Above all, the key markings of the paper were recommendations to instructors that VR should be used for active engagement, like group work, and not for passive lectures.

The recommendations also included that the use of virtual interventions should be phased in, with beginners subject to short sessions at first.

The team also put forward alternative forms of access, such as mobile apps and desktop computers, so that students don’t have to wear a headset too often and undergo “simulator sickness.”

The study analysed 69 legislative and media statements and found only limited evidence of causal links between social media and harm to adolescents.

In terms of robust findings, the survey found common mention of addictive-like behaviors, such as compulsively checking apps and sleep interference.

Senior author and professor of Epidemiology Katherine Keyes commented: “Our research shows that the evidence base underlying social media policies continues to have serious gaps… so that we can inform the most effective policies.”