Work

Examining User Interactions With Signaling Elements in a Virtual Reality Learning Application

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This preliminary study examined how users leveraged three different types of signaling elements in Scale Worlds, an immersive virtual reality (IVR) application designed to improve size and scale cognition. Signaling elements, which are instructional cues in the form of graphics, colors, sounds, or text in IVR, may improve learning outcomes by enhancing related cognitive processes. However, it is unclear the extent to which learners utilize these signaling elements in practice. A think-aloud protocol was used to examine how participants engaged with signaling elements, with thematic analysis suggesting that numerical measures were a particularly salient cue for conceptualizing the size and scale of entities in IVR. These findings can guide design decisions for future work on educational IVR in the context of size and scale cognition or STEM education, as implementing numerical measures to facilitate mathematical reasoning in IVR environments may bolster learning outcomes related to numeracy and conceptual understanding.

Source: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting

DOI: 10.1177/10711813251360711

Authors: Emily Fang, Robert Kulasingam, Fangyuan Cheng, Matthew Peterson, Cesar Delgado, Karen B. Chen

Institution: North Carolina State University

Language: English

Topic: Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts

Subfield: Human-Computer Interaction

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: National Science Foundation