Enhancing Student Engagement in Engineering and Education Through Virtual Reality: A Survey-Based Analysis
Dinesh Bhatia, Henrik Hesse · 2023
This paper investigates the impact of virtual reality (VR) on student engagement in engineering education and their potential in enhancing the student learning experience through technology-led learning. VR technology has shown to improve student engagement in different educational sectors. As a result, this study evaluated the efficacy of VR technology as an immersive learning tool focusing on engineering education. The survey collects data from a diverse sample of students who experienced the use of VR-based flight simulator as a part of their continuous assessment, providing valuable insights. Conditional results indicate that by using VR headsets 70% of students reported improved learning outcomes for the module, while 100% students agreed that VR technology offered a more immersive learning experience. The survey results indicate and emphasize the potential benefits that integrating VR headsets into engineering education could bring to the student learning experience through enhanced student engagement and the acquisition of practical skills in simulated immersive environments. The paper also makes recommendations for further research and implementation of VR technology in other fields of STEM education.