by Gabriel Jones, University of Leeds , UK.
In April 2024, JISC released a report on extended reality (XR) in Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) learning and teaching. The report draws on insights from a range of teaching, professional, and technical staff, highlighting significant investment as well as broadly positive attitudes towards XR technology, alongside concerns about resourcing and the need for greater understanding of use cases and evaluation strategies. These needs are paralleled by emergent frameworks such as the Cognitive Affective Model of Immersive Learning, which highlights a lack of systematic research into the relationship between technological and cognitive factors and the success of different forms of learning through fully-immersive virtual reality (VR) using head-mounted displays.
Myself and colleagues at the University of Leeds find ourselves at a similar crossroads, facing important collective decisions about how to maximise effective and critical engagement with our existing XR provisions. These include HELIX, a new centre for XR design, production, testing, and implementation in the heart of the University campus, equipped with XR hardware, software, practice spaces, and technical support staff. As with an increasing number of institutes, such infrastructure places us in a strong position to scale-up, standardise, evaluate, and experiment with the use of XR in teaching. Securing staff engagement, however, beyond a small cadre of early adopters, remains a challenge.
In September 2023, I began a year-long research project addressing this challenge. My aim was to create a set of data-driven guidelines for faculty-specific training and awareness-raising around the use of XR in teaching at the University. Unlike the JISC report, I was exclusively interested in the experience and attitudes of those who would be most directly involved in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of XR experiences in the classroom: namely, faculty-based teaching staff. To access these insights, I conducted a survey with a specific focus on fully-immersive VR, using constructs and items based on the Unified Theory of the Acceptance and Use of Technology.
The survey received 153 responses from teaching staff across all seven faculties at the University. The results showed that 36% of respondents had never used VR in their personal lives, and that 55% had used it once or several times. Only 9% were regular users. In spite of this lack of experience, there was a generally positive attitude towards the technology in items measuring performance expectancy (corroborating the findings of the JISC survey), with the majority of staff agreeing that VR can enhance the quality of their teaching as well as student engagement with teaching materials. Items measuring attitudes towards the VR infrastructure at HELIX and the support of faculty-based learning technologists and centralised specialists also elicited positive reactions, with staff more likely to use VR because of these provisions. Other items highlighted the perceived challenges of using VR, including implementation and comprehension among staff and students. There was also a divided response on the pedagogical relevance of VR in teaching and a prevailing lack of confidence in staff support. Most striking of all was the high frequency of responses that ‘neither agree nor disagree’ with the statements, suggesting that many participants did not have the basic knowledge nor experience to make informed responses.
Four priorities emerge from these findings in terms of training and awareness-raising: (1) offering staff scaffolded and meaningful hands-on experiences of using VR; (2) introducing core pedagogic principles in context; (3) clarifying the practicalities of introducing VR into teaching; (4) signposting relevant support provisions. As the senior learning technologist in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, I also recognise the need for subject-specific experiences that users can immediately trial and possibly implement. Staff at the University currently have easy access to VR headsets and spaces through the simple booking system at HELIX, yet they may not have access to materials that are in any way relevant to their teaching. Further consideration should therefore be given, where possible, to investment in software and third-party experiences that offer equitable experiences of our hardware provisions to all staff and students.
Author
Gabriel Jones, University of Leeds , UK.
