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Virtual reality (VR) technologies have expanded their application domains towards education with pedagogical benefits including fully immersive learning environment and in-depth user engagement through scenario-based virtual simulations. Motion sickness (MS), however, has become one of the long-standing key challenges of the VR utilisation, even in gaming industries. Thus, this paper aims to present a preliminary study on understanding the VR MS, referred as cybersickness, in the teaching and learning (T&L) context at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China.

A VR-based virtual classroom content was developed and tested for 60 undergraduate students having equal access to the same VR equipment. A two-step data collection, comprising qualitative and quantitative measures, was conducted for the participants. The aspects of how gender influences the cybersickness severity and how academic background affects the learning experience were investigated and analysed using analysis of variance F-test statistical approach.

The results demonstrated approximately 47% of the participants had experienced cybersickness, where 64% of them were females. With confidence level of 95% (a = 5%), the obtained p-value and F-statistical value for the respective gender and study discipline categories against the cybersickness symptoms confirmed the significance level between the two compared variables. Moreover, it is worth highlighting that the virtual movement speed, perspective angle and visual properties of the virtual environment were selected as the top three factors that caused the cybersickness.

The study is hoped to provide valuable pointers to current and future VR developers in minimising the cybersickness symptoms that would enable an effective T&L environment in higher education.

The purpose of this paper is to present evaluation findings from a proof-of-concept virtual reality adaptive skills intervention called Virtuoso, designed for adults with autism spectrum disorders.

A user-centric usage test was conducted to investigate the acceptability, feasibility, ease-of-use and relevance of Virtuoso to the unique needs of participants, as well as the nature of participants’ user experiences. Findings are presented from the perspectives of expert testers and participant testers with autism.

This paper offers findings that suggest Virtuoso is feasible and relevant to the unique needs of the target population, and that user experience was largely positive. Anecdotal evidence of skills transfer is also discussed.

The research was conducted in limited settings and with a small number of participants. Multiple VR hardware systems were used, and some experienced instability. This could be accounted for in future research by deploying across multiple settings and with a larger number of participants. Some evidence of cybersickness was observed. Future research must carefully consider the trade-offs between VR-based training and cybersickness for this vulnerable population.

This paper reports on cutting-edge design and development in areas that are under-represented and poorly understood in the literature on virtual reality for individuals with autism.

The use of virtual reality (VR) technologies in the education of autistic children has been a focus of research for over two decades. It is argued that this form of technology can provide authentic “real world” contexts that target social and life skills training in safe, controllable and repeatable virtual environments. The development of affordable VR head-mounted displays (HMD), such as Google cardboard and Oculus Rift, has seen a renewed interest in their use for a wide range of applications, including the education of autistic individuals. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A systematic search of electronic databases focussing on empirical studies on the use of VR-HMD for children and adults on the autism spectrum was undertaken.

A review of the literature identified a limited number of studies in this field characterised by differences in the type of application, technology used and participant characteristics.

Whilst there are some grounds for optimism, more research is needed on the use of this technology within educational settings to ensure robust recommendations can be made on the implementation, use and sustainability of this approach.

This paper is the first to consider the evidence base for the use of VR-HMD technology to support the needs of the autistic population.

Despite the increasing interest in the metaverse—immersive three-dimensional virtual worlds wherein personalized avatars interact with one another—little is known about how users cognitively appraise and emotionally experience it. To fill this gap, the present study explores the emotional, behavioral and social consequences of users' cognitive appraisals, while focusing on social virtual reality (VR) as a representative entry point to the metaverse.

Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory against the backdrop of a framework for classifying emotions, this study develops and tests a theoretical model to account for users' continuance intention and its consequences in the social VR context based on two-wave panel survey data collected from 216 users of social VR platforms, including AltspaceVR, VRChat, Bigscreen and Rec Room.

The results of the first survey showed that perceived opportunity was more strongly influenced by technological opportunity than social opportunity, whereas perceived threat was more strongly affected by social threat than technological threat. Integrating the data collected from the first survey with those of the second survey, we also found that users' continuance intention positively influenced both their behavioral engagement and social self-efficacy.

By adopting a longitudinal approach, this study provides insights that may be valuable to researchers and practitioners who seek to use social VR for business purposes. This study also contributes to the metaverse literature by conceptualizing and operationalizing the opportunity and threat factors of social VR and identifying salient emotions that users experience in this context. Finally, this study has practical implications for addressing the social and technological features that may cause adverse user experiences in social VR.

The psychology of user experience is sometimes overlooked in favor of assumptions based on didactic principles that do not apply to the use of the Web. This column aims to explore the implications of some psychological principles that bear on user interface (UI) design and the implications those principles may have for the digital library.

This is a regular column – a literature review was completed and incorporated into the text.

Common perceptual biases, particularly related to our perception of the material world, heavily influence our interaction with Web UIs. Aligning Web UI design with our hardwired expectations regarding physical space and material objects has the possibility of increasing the effectiveness of those interfaces.

The psychology of user design is an important area of concern, and it should be considered by libraries engaged in the provisioning of online content and services. This has not been extensively explored in the literature, and these principles are rarely adhered to in the library community. The primary example given that seems to have successfully taken this seriously in the commercial sector is Google’s promotion of a recommendation called Material Design.

The use of extended reality (XR) to create memorable experiences has attracted considerable attention, especially in tourism. Multisensory XR offers a new way of virtually previewing a destination before physical holidays. This study aims to explore how multisensory XR can be used at each stage of the tourism experience journey. This study established a model for how destination-image formation is affected by multisensory XR in each phase of tourism experience.

The authors followed the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines to review studies published between 2013 and 2020, gathered from four research databases. The authors identified the predominant XR technology and sensory stimuli based on the characteristics of various tourism domains. The authors synthesized the previous studies to explain destination-image formation by using multisensory XR.

This study summarized the XR study distribution among the three stages of the tourism experience journey. The authors identified the predominant sensory stimuli and dominant XR application and developed a destination-image formation model by using multisensory XR.

This study highlights the holistic approach of multisensory XR in the tourism experience journey in relation to various tourism domains. It also contributes to destination-image formation in the virtual environment by providing multisensory experiences of predominant sensory stimuli at each stage.

多感官扩展现实对旅游体验的影响

运用扩展现实（XR）来创造令人印象深刻的体验在旅游领域得到了瞩目。多感官XR提供了用虚拟方式预览景区的新途径。本研究探讨了多感官XR是怎样在旅游体验的各个阶段进行运用。我们建立了一个关于目的地形象行程是怎样收到多感知XR在每一个旅游体验阶段影响模型。

本研究遵循了系统评价的首选的报告项目对由四份数据库综合提取的2013 到2020 年间发表的文章用系统文献综述和荟萃分析方法进行了梳理。基于不同旅游领域我们发现了首要的XR技术和感官刺激因素。本研究综合了之前文章用多感官XR来解释目的地形象的产生的文章。

我们总结了XR 基于旅游体验三个阶段的研究的分布. 我们确定了主导的感官刺激因素和主导的XR应用技术并且用多元感知XR研发了目的地形象形成的模型。

本研究突出了多元感官XR在旅游体验跨越多层旅游领域的整体性方式。本研究并且通过提供每阶段的主打感官刺激元素在多感官体验过程中对虚拟环境下的目的地形象产生做出了贡献。

This paper reports exploratory findings about teaching in the metaverse using a virtual reality (VR) platform and head-mounted displays. This paper addresses three research questions: Is the metaverse an appropriate platform for teaching Lean? What are the benefits and problems of this approach over traditional classroom methods? What are the future implications for teaching Lean in the VR-enabled metaverse?

The research presented in this paper is exploratory. A critical realism approach is adopted using action research through the preparation, delivery and review of the first four masterclasses entitled Leading Intelligent Lean offered by Gemba (formerly The Leadership Network). The data collection methods included a pre-workshop questionnaire, participant observation, focus groups and end-of-course surveys.

It was found that Lean can be taught successfully in the metaverse. There are many related benefits, particularly in terms of the high levels of immersion and the “wow” factor. Remaining technological limitations are reduced by continually improving the metaverse platform and the course content and delivery. The authors conclude that the metaverse is a useful addition to teaching Lean – and is especially promising when used in a blended teaching approach.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report of teaching Lean in a VR-enabled metaverse and one of the first of teaching and learning in the metaverse regardless of topic. The respective problems and benefits of this approach versus teaching in a traditional classroom setting are discussed.

This paper aims to identify the basis of the technological anxiety phenomenon by defining the differences and similarities in terms of barriers of the implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies across industrial processing sector.

This paper presents a qualitative, exploratory research, and the authors apply the cross-case study method. The study is based on interviews with representatives of 11 medium-sized and large companies from industrial processing sector; specifically, the authors focus on three industries: automotive, food and furniture.

The research showed that there are similarities as well as differences in terms of identified barriers between individual industries. Taking into account the various dimensions of technological anxiety, similarities are visible, in particular, in the case of Internal processes and infrastructure and human resources, while in the other two dimensions, i.e. strategic planning and standards and security, differences between the sectors were noted.

The developed list of barriers can be a starting point for middle and senior managers of manufacturing companies to understand the sources of technological anxiety. The planning and introducing preventive and protective tools during Industry 4.0 implementation may reduce the occurrence of technological anxiety and thus ensure a smoother adoption of technologies 4.0, while respecting the organizational culture.

This work contributes to in-depth understanding of multifaced technological anxiety phenomenon. This paper classifies dimensions of existing barriers, increases the awareness on the difficulties during transformation process and, thus enables the improvement of the use of company’s internal potential.

This paper presents a model aiming to identify the factors influencing the adoption of augmented reality (AR) for industrial services.

The study combines a literature analysis with an empirical study conducted exploring how five large industrial companies are introducing AR for supporting the provision of technical assistance and industrial services to their installed base.

The authors identify four categories (task, workforce, context and technology) that combine 18 factors that manufacturing companies should consider when introducing AR technology to support industrial services.

This paper systematises the fragmented literature on technology adoption and in particular those works related to the factors affecting the adoption of AR in industrial services. Based on literature and empirical evidence, the authors propose a novel framework that can help companies in the selection of AR solution based on their specific applications and situations. This study therefore contributes also to the existing literature on the adoption of I4.0 and digital technologies in industrial services.