Social virtual reality as learning space: Conceptualising context through spatial and sociotechnological perspectives
Fiona Schmidbauer, Matthias Wölfel · Learning in Context · 2025
This theoretical-conceptual contribution examines how learning contexts in social virtual reality (VR) can be theoretically conceptualised and how this theoretical framework can inform a methodological approach for their analysis. Social VR creates three-dimensional, immersive learning environments for multiple participants, thereby promoting a sense of presence and connectedness, which supports social aspects of learning. However, the immersive virtual spaces of social VR are still mostly treated as static backdrops; little consideration has been given to how their sociotechnologically produced spatial configurations create learning contexts. As a result, a distinctive feature of social VR remains insufficiently conceptualised: the sociotechnologically produced space, which only emerges through the inextricable entanglement of human and technological actors. In response to this conceptual gap, this article proposes the “Spatial Conceptualisation for Education in Virtual Reality” (EduSpace-VR), a conceptual framework that understands learning context manifested in the immersive virtual space, which is the situationally produced outcome of sociotechnological actor-networks. EduSpace-VR consists of a literature-based definition of learning context in social VR, a theoretical foundation that combines spatial sociology with actor-network-theory (ANT), a methodological perspective derived from these foundations, particularly in the form of videography, and exemplary analytical focal points intended to inspire future empirical studies. With this, EduSpace-VR contributes both an analytical lens and methodological strategy for making learning context visible in social VR, while also offering broader implications for researching technologically permeated learning spaces in an increasingly sociotechnological educational landscape.