The Development and Preliminary Evaluation of a Chemistry Educational Virtual Reality Game with Authentic Manipulation and Situated Learning

Abstract

In recent years, virtual reality educational game has gained much attention and has been applied for learning abstract and complex subject like chemistry. However, the study of the virtual reality educational game integrating authentic manipulation and situated learning assisting chemistry experiment learning is still limited. To improve the understanding of how VR can assist learning. This study developed a VR integrated educational game – VR Crystal Chamber for learning chemistry filtration and evaporation procedure. To evaluate the game, thirty students of a senior high school in northern Taiwan participated in this study. Preliminary results suggested that the game could be helpful in enhancing students’ learning performance. In addition, students’ flow state revealed positive game engagement. In terms of gender differences, the result showed there were no significant gender differences in male and female students’ flow state as well as their learning performance. These preliminary findings suggested that VR Crystal Chamber could be an effectively tool in learning chemistry experiment procedure.