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1. Enhancing Educational Landscapes: Harnessing AI for Immersive and Adaptive Learning Environments."

   Vassigh, S (September 2024, University of Arkansas)

   Personalized learning, which customizes content and instructional sequences to account for differences in ability, experience, and sociocultural backgrounds, holds great promise for transforming education. This transformation is increasingly driven by significant advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI enables detailed analysis and reporting of learners' performance data, paving the way for the development of intelligent adaptive learning systems that offer personalized feedback aligned with each learner’s unique needs and progress. In parallel, immersive technologies are playing a pivotal role in enhancing educational experiences. Technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) create engaging, interactive environments that deepen learners' understanding and retention of complex concepts. Dr. Vassigh's presentation explores the integration of AI and VR in education, illustrated through a case study from an ongoing project. The talk will highlight the refinement of learning processes through these technologies and demonstrate how they can impact learner engagement and performance. 

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2. Framework for Integrating Immersive Embodied Interaction into Construction Education and Training

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-97697-1_4  

   Anjum, Sharjeel; Nnaji, Chukwuma; Akanmu, Abiola; Abraham, Yewande (January 2025, Springer Nature Switzerland)

   Immersive technologies have been deployed as viable tools for enhancing learning in complex work environments. However, questions surrounding the ability of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) to promote experiential learning economically and effectively among construction students and workers persist. Researchers have recently argued that for VR/AR to be effective, it is critical to improve realism and embodied interactions using tangible objects close to their real-life representations. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the role of immersive embodiment in facilitating embodied cognition in construction education and training. To achieve this goal, this study (1) reviews and synthesizes existing studies involving Immersive Embodied Interaction (IEI) in construction education and training and (2) develops a conceptual framework for enhancing the successful integration of IEI in construction education and training. Results from the study indicate that extant literature within this promising domain is limited, and additional research is needed to maximize the potential of IEI in construction workforce development. The proposed framework provides researchers with foundational insight that could guide future VR/AR research. 

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3. 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.; 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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4. Shrink or grow the kids? Scale cognition in an immersive virtual environment for K-12 summer camp

   https://doi.org/10.1109/VRW58643.2023.00203  

   Wu, Linfeng; Chen, Karen B.; Sekelsky, Brian; Peterson, Matthew; Harper-Gampp, Tyler; Delgado, Cesar (March 2023, 2023 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW))

   Virtual reality (VR) has been widely used for education and affords embodied learning experiences. Here we describe: Scale Worlds (SW), an immersive virtual environment to allow users to shrink or grow by powers of ten (10X) and experience entities from molecular to astronomical levels; and students’ impressions and outcomes from experiencing SW in a CAVE (Figure 1) during experiential summer outreach sessions. Data collected from post-visit surveys of 69 students, and field observations, revealed that VR technologies: enabled interactive learning experiences; encouraged active engagement and discussions among participating students; enhanced the understanding of size and scale; and increased interest in STEM careers. 

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5. 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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