Abstract
Virtual reality (VR) can be adapted to teach many topics and may be particularly effective for complex concepts. However, little is known about teacher readiness on adopting VR in the classroom. Accordingly, 189 higher education teachers were surveyed to explore perceptions on adopting VR. Findings revealed the adoption of VR vectored on teachers perceived readiness confidence in technology skill and belief that VR has potential to benefit student learning. Moreover, understanding students cognitive experience in the immersive VR environment remains underdeveloped and may influence teacher's perception of readiness to adopt VR for teaching. However, there is an opportunity to influence educational models by providing a VR approach to knowledge creation centered around cognitive processes students use to make sense of the real world. But there remain perceived challenges centered around costs, technical issues, content availability, and pedagogical integration. This study concludes any successful adoption of VR for teaching will require careful planning for teacher readiness with primary focus on technology competence and pedagogical matters. Although more research is needed to understand teachers' readiness, VR is likely forthcoming and has potential to be an important resource in the educator's toolkit.
Description
Copyright of the paper is retained by the author under Creative Commons (CC) Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This license authorizes unrestricted circulation and reproduction of the publication by anybody, as long as the original work is properly cited.
Publisher
AIRCC Publishing Corporation
Date of publication
Fall 9-2023
Language
english
Persistent identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/4576
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
Carpenter, R. E., McWhorter, R., & Stone, K., Coyne, L. (2023). Adopting virtual reality for education: Exploring teachers’ perspectives on readiness, opportunities, and challenges. International Journal on Integrating Technology in Education 12(3), 27-36. https://doi.org/10.5121/ijite.2023.12303
Publisher Citation
Carpenter, R. E., McWhorter, R., & Stone, K., Coyne, L. (2023). Adopting virtual reality for education: Exploring teachers’ perspectives on readiness, opportunities, and challenges. International Journal on Integrating Technology in Education 12(3), 27-36. https://doi.org/10.5121/ijite.2023.12303