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1. The Impact of Immersion Level when Learning Optimization Concepts via a Simulation Game

   https://doi.org/10.1109/WSC63780.2024.10838881  

   Bandi, Saurav; Ozden, Sabahattin G; Ashour, Omar; Negahban, Ashkan (December 2024, IEEE)

   Simulation can be employed as an interactive computer game to enable game-based learning. Educational simulations can also be combined with immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) to enhance student engagement and learning. While recent years have seen significant growth in the use of immersive technologies in education, the role and contribution of the additional immersion offered by VR still needs to be explored. This paper aims to address this gap by comparing low- and high-immersion modes for a simulation game to familiarize students with the fundamental concepts of mathematical optimization. The game resembles performing a heuristic search on the solution space for an optimization problem and involves finding the highest peak in an arctic landscape. Our research experiments include three groups of students who play the game either in VR, desktop mode, or PowerPoint slides. Our statistical comparisons show that VR enhanced students' sense of presence and learning. 

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2. Overview of Visualizing Historical Architectural Knowledge through Virtual Reality

   https://doi.org/10.1109/SoutheastCon45413.2021.9401850  

   Ehtemami, Anahid; Park, Sang Bum; Bernadin, Shonda; Lescop, Laurent; Chin, Andrew (March 2021, SoutheastCon 2021)

   null (Ed.)

   Virtual Reality (VR) has become one of the emerging technologies over the past decade for improving the quality of life in human experiences. It has exciting and popular applications in entertainment, sports, education, and even digital documentation of notable or historical sites, allowing users to immerse themselves in an alternate reality. By combining the principles of software development and immersive VR, real-life VR experiences seek to transport users to an interactive environment where they can view, observe, and experience historical events and artifacts in a new way. There are several steps involved in VR development of cultural and historical sites that require a solid understanding for adaptable and scalable design. This paper is a review of the VR development process for notable historic preservation VR projects. This process can be used to create immersive VR experiences for other cultural sites. 

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3. A Review of the Impacts of Defogging on Deep Learning-Based Object Detectors in Self-Driving Cars

   https://doi.org/10.1109/SoutheastCon45413.2021.9401941  

   Ogunrinde, Isaac; Bernadin, Shonda (March 2021, SoutheastCon 2021)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract—Virtual Reality (VR) has become one of the emerging technologies over the past decade for improving the quality of life in human experiences. It has exciting and popular applications in entertainment, sports, education, and even digital documentation of notable or historical sites, allowing users to immerse themselves in an alternate reality. By combining the principles of software development and immersive VR, real-life VR experiences seek to transport users to an interactive environment where they can view, observe, and experience historical events and artifacts in a new way. There are several steps involved in VR development of cultural and historical sites that require a solid understanding for adaptable and scalable design. This paper is a review of the VR development process for notable historic preservation VR projects. This process can be used to create immersive VR experiences for other cultural sites. 

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4. Longitudinal Effects in the Effectiveness of Educational Virtual Field Trips

   https://doi.org/10.1177/07356331211062925  

   Zhao, Jiayan; Wallgrün, Jan_Oliver; Sajjadi, Pejman; LaFemina, Peter; Lim, Kenneth_Y_T; Springer, Jan_P; Klippel, Alexander (December 2021, Journal of Educational Computing Research)

   Virtual and immersive virtual reality, VR and iVR, provide flexible and engaging learning opportunities, such as virtual field trips (VFTs). Despite its growing popularity for education, understanding how iVR compared to non-immersive media influences learning is still challenged by mixed empirical results and a lack of longitudinal research. This study addresses these issues through an experiment in which undergraduate geoscience students attended two temporally separated VFT sessions through desktop virtual reality (dVR) or iVR, with their learning experience and outcomes measured after each session. Our results show higher levels of enjoyment and satisfaction as well as a stronger sense of spatial presence in iVR students in both VFTs compared to dVR students, but no improvement in learning outcomes in iVR compared to dVR. More importantly, we found that there exists a critical interaction between VR condition and repeated participation in VFTs indicating that longitudinal exposure to VFTs improves knowledge performance more when learning in iVR than through dVR. These results suggest that repeated use of iVR may be beneficial in sustaining students’ emotional engagement and compensating the initial deficiency in their objective learning outcomes compared to other less immersive technologies. 

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5. Empeiría: Powering future education training systems with device agnostic web-vr apps.

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49698-2_19  

   Miller, M. E. (January 2021, Virtual, Augmented and mixed reality: Industrial and everyday life applications)

   null (Ed.)

   This paper presents Empeiría, which uses cutting-edge technologies and novel virtual reality systems to enhance future in-class education training. Empeiría incorporates JavaScript, WebGL, WebVR, and powerful web graphics engines like Babylon.js to create immersive training experiences. It demonstrates a useful application of computer science concepts and increases the dissemination of edge technologies across academic disciplines. Most importantly, Empeiría improves education technology and professional training through the creation of two major software products; an immersive experience editing system (Empeiría-E) and an immersive experience viewing system (Empeiría-V). We show how these virtual reality systems can lead to more effective training and improve our understanding of trainees. 

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