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Assessing the Impact of Virtual Reality on Engineering Students’ Spatial Ability

The Future of Innovation and Technology in Education: Policies and Practices for Teaching and Learning Excellence

ISBN: 978-1-78756-556-2, eISBN: 978-1-78756-555-5

Publication date: 30 November 2018

Abstract

Spatial ability is essential for engineers’ professional performance. Several studies describe it as a skill that can be enhanced using new technologies. Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology that is proving very useful for training different skills and improving spatial perception. In this chapter, the authors firstly present some previous works that use VR to train students, mainly in the area of engineering studies, and which demonstrate that VR can improve some aspects of the spatial perception. This study took a group of engineering students who used VR technologies to carry out learning activities designed to improve their spatial perception, which was measured with a widely used spatial ability test. The results obtained confirm that the use of VR technologies can improve students’ spatial perception. This proposal is easily transferable to other educational contexts. On the one hand, it could be implemented to improve spatial ability in other engineering studies, and on the other hand, with simple adaptation, it could be used to enhance other skills.

Keywords

Citation

Molina-Carmona, R., Pertegal-Felices, M.L., Jimeno-Morenilla, A. and Mora-Mora, H. (2018), "Assessing the Impact of Virtual Reality on Engineering Students’ Spatial Ability", Visvizi, A., Lytras, M.D. and Daniela, L. (Ed.) The Future of Innovation and Technology in Education: Policies and Practices for Teaching and Learning Excellence (Emerald Studies in Higher Education, Innovation and Technology), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 171-185. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78756-555-520181013

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

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