Volume 12, Number 3

Adopting Virtual Reality for Education: Exploring Teachers’ Perspectives on Readiness, Opportunities, and Challenges

  Authors

Rob E. Carpenter¹, Rochell R. McWhorter¹, Katherine Stone² and Leanne Coyne³, ¹University of Texas at Tyler, USA, ²University of Texas at Tyler School of Medicine, USA, ³West Coast University School of Pharmacy, USA

  Introduction

Virtual reality (VR) can be adapted to teach many topics and may be particularly effective for complex concepts. However, little is known about teacher readiness on adopting VR in the classroom. Accordingly, 189 higher education teachers were surveyed to explore perceptions on adopting VR. Findings revealed the adoption of VR vectored on teachers perceived readiness confidence in technology skill and belief that VR has potential to benefit student learning. Moreover, understanding students cognitive experience in the immersive VR environment remains underdeveloped and may influence teacher’s perception of readiness to adopt VR for teaching. However, there is an opportunity to influence educational models by providing a VR approach to knowledge creation centred around cognitive processes students use to make sense of the real world. But there remain perceived challenges centered around costs, technical issues, content availability, and pedagogical integration. This study concludes any successful adoption of VR for teaching will require careful planning for teacher readiness with primary focus on technology competence and pedagogical matters. Although more research is needed to understand teachers’ readiness, VR is likely forthcoming and has potential to be an important resource in the educator’s toolkit.

  Keywords

Extended Reality, Virtual Reality, Teacher Readiness, Self-Regulation, Classroom Technology