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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate undergraduate student perceptions about the application of immersive technologies for enhancing the student learning experience. This study assesses the viewpoints of students from varying multidisciplinary backgrounds about whether immersive technologies can enhance their learning experience and increase their level of engagement in the context of higher educational delivery.

The research used a case study methodology adopting a questionnaire-based research mixed methods approach. In total, 83 participants completed the questionnaire. The purpose of the research was to evaluate and interpret students’ perspectives at higher educational level about the use of immersive technologies towards enhancing their learning experience. There was also a focus on remote educational delivery due to the legacy of COVID-19.

The findings suggest that there is still more empirical work to be undertaken regarding the application of immersive technologies in higher education. The study revealed that there are immersive benefits though preference for face-to-face teaching remains popular. The negative connotations associated with immersive technology use in higher education, (e.g. virtual reality), such as cost of equipment and motion sickness, substantiates the themes identified in the academic literature.

The study explores a diversity of immersive technologies and their application in higher education (HE) contexts. Findings indicate that although there are acknowledged pedagogical benefits of immersive technology use in HE prevalent barriers remain that require further empirical research if immersive technology use is to be universally used in the sector.

The purpose of this study is to describe an educational virtual reality (VR) photo-based tour used in an online course and investigate the influence of immersive capability on the dimensions of spatial presence and their relationship with learning-related variables.

The study employs a descriptive and an experimental methodological approach. The research objectives were achieved using a two-group (n1 = 29 and n2 = 30) experiment, employing descriptive statistics, t-test and correlation analysis.

The t-test revealed that the immersive capability had a significant effect on the sense of physical space (SP) , Engagement (EN) and negative effects (NE) dimensions. Correlations between the dimensions of spatial presence were found to confirm reports from the literature. Furthermore, some of the dimensions were found to be correlated with motivational and learning variables.

The study reported the results of a one-off experiment among 59 participants. While the results were promising, a longitudinal qualitative study could confirm the results in an actual distance learning context.

The study confirmed that adding VR photo-based tours as learning activities may enhance the learning experience of distance learners.

The study shared a case of a learning activity that can be employed for flexible education. Virtual tours can support the need for context-based learning that the geographical or political constraints may limit.

While the paper confirms previous reports on the benefits of using VR photo-based tours as learning activities, this paper has empirically shown the relationship between the dimensions of spatial presence and immersive capability in this specialized context.

The aim of the study was to explore aspects of learning in terms of gain in knowledge, confidence and empathy with immersive virtual reality (VR) from the patient perspective in undergraduate nursing students.

A pilot study integrating immersive VR experiences during clinical courses was facilitated based on the INACSL (2016) standards for simulation practices with a convenience sample of 165 nursing students in three levels of cohorts, using two different VR scenario simulations. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through pre- and post-surveys.

Student participants embodied patients with chronic disease using immersive VR. Findings showed substantial gains in most measures of knowledge, confidence and empathy, with slightly less difference seen in lower level nursing students particularly with empathy and understanding.

Embodiment through immersive VR scenarios was shown to increase learner development. The positive findings from the pilot study justified continuance of integration of immersive VR in nursing education, recommending further use and research.

Simulated learning for nursing has known benefits on knowledge and understanding. Immersive VR is gaining recognition within nursing education as a method to enhance cognitive and affective knowledge. This paper hopes to add insights on the impact of immersive VR for student learning and encourage discussion about the future for innovative immersive teaching and learning approaches for experiential learning.

Katipuneros RPG: Bisperas ng Himagsikan (Katipuneros RPG: The Eve of the Revolution) is an immersive and gamified theater that engages its “audiences” in the initiation rites of a secret revolutionary movement in the Philippines in 1896. This descriptive qualitative research evaluates such experiential approach to learning history by investigating the experiences and insights of a group of students from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), who participated in Katipuneros RPG.

Textual data obtained from the participants' reflection papers and focus group discussion transcripts were analyzed using open and axial coding.

Three key themes summarized the participants' learning experiences as they went through the play, as follows: (1) Katipuneros RPG as an immersive, interactive and intrinsically motivating medium for learning history; (2) the knowledge, values and skills that served as facilitating factors for their learning and (3) the insights the participants gained about history and life in general.

The research argues that in Katipuneros RPG, learners take on a more active role in studying history as the “teacher” vanishes in lieu of a learning system the allows students to think critically, reflect and collaborate. The approach integrates elements of development theater, immersive play and gamified learning, as well as the principles of constructivist, play-based and multi-sensorial learning.

As an innovative learning tool, it is a viable medium to teach history in the current socio-political context of the Philippines.

The study hopes to contribute to literature on pedagogical approaches for teaching and learning history through immersive environments.

The ability to project oneself into a future landscape is a critical aspect for studying and practicing the science of foresight and foresight-based learning systems. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how we can construct immersive spatial narratives through multimedia-enhanced learning approaches, to increase deeper learner immersion and levels of creativity to transport the learner into a simulated 2030 landscape by reducing the distance between the projected reality and the Self.

The author designed a foresight-based course on the Future of Mobile Learning underpinned by a new learning system that embraced the concept of immersive spatial narratives, combining physical, virtual and cognitive learning spaces, which enable students to explore complex, undiscovered or unstructured knowledge. Practicing was carried out on 35 students who had completed the course during the preceding three years through a questionnaire and interviews to establish increased levels of creativity in a simulated future landscape.

The paper established that the addition of multimedia learning environments and tools to foresight-based learning creates immersive spatial narratives that increase creativity and learner ability to project him/herself into a simulated future landscape. In all, 75 per cent of the respondents stated that having to think about the future and place themselves in a practicing landscape increased their creative skills.

A new, foresight-based learning system driven by the concept of immersive spatial narratives, enhanced with student-created multimedia learning tools. The system demonstrated how this approach helps to increase learner creativity and the ability to transition from their Present Self to their Future Self.

The chapters in this book focus on three main areas of innovation in teaching and learning in higher education today: virtual worlds, gaming, and simulation. Advancements in both digital technologies and learning theories are transforming the way we teach and learn and those advancements are refining our views of what it means to learn in the contemporary post-industrial age. Both individually and collectively, immersive technologies have become more popular as educational tools across a range of disciplines as a means for educators to engage students more deeply in the learning process. Biggs (2003) advocates deep learning – learning that entails active and devoted engagement with rigorous, high-quality learning activities that is also enjoyable and interesting for the learner.

The purpose of this study is to highlight the benefits and challenges of immersive, design thinking and community-engaged pedagogies for supporting social innovation within higher education; assess the impact of such approaches across stakeholder groups through long-term retrospective analysis of transdisciplinary and cross-stakeholder work; offer an approach to ecosystems design and analysis that accounts for complex system dynamics in higher education partnerships.

This study uses constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz and Belgrave, 2012) to create a long-term systemic analysis of university innovation efforts. Researchers analysed 37 semi-structured interviews across key stakeholders involved in the design and implementation of the Design Thinking Studio in Social Innovation. Interview subjects include alumni (students), faculty, community partners and administrators. Interviews were coded using constant comparative coding (Mills et al., 2006) to develop and analyse themes. This study includes situated perspectives from the authors who offer their subjective relationship to the Studio’s development.

This paper assesses the outcomes and design of a transdisciplinary cross-stakeholder social innovation program and extends prior research on the potential and challenges of design thinking and immersive pedagogies for supporting service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) practices within higher education. Qualitative interview results reveal how time, resources and other structural and systemic factors operate across stakeholder groups. The findings address a gap in SLCE and social innovation literature by situating community learning within pedagogical interventions constructed not only for the benefit of students but for community members. The authors conclude that the research on social innovation in higher education could benefit from a more intentional examination of longitudinal effects of innovative pedagogical environments across a broad range of stakeholder perspectives and contexts.

This paper identifies how innovative higher education programs are forced to navigate structural, epistemological and ethical quandaries when engaging in community-involved work. Sustainable innovation requires such programs to work within institutional structures while simultaneously disrupting entrenched structures, practices, and processes within the system.

Social innovation in higher education could benefit from harnessing lessons from collective impact and ecosystem design frameworks. In addition, the authors argue higher education institutions should commit to studying longitudinal effects of innovative pedagogical environments across multiple stakeholder perspectives and contexts. This study closes these gaps by advancing an ecosystems model for long-term and longitudinal assessment that captures the impact of such approaches across stakeholder groups and developing an approach to designing and assessing community-involved collaborative learning ecosystems (CiCLE).

This systematic review, following preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis guidelines, rigorously investigates the emergent role of virtual reality (VR) technology in human movement training. The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness and evolution of VR in enhancing movement training experiences.

Acknowledging its pivotal role in diverse applications, such as sports and rehabilitation, human movement training is currently experiencing accelerated evolution, facilitated by the proliferation of wearable devices and mobile applications. This review conducted an exhaustive search across five different electronic databases, such as Web of Science, PubMed and ProQuest, resulting in the selection of 69 eligible articles published within the past five years. It also integrates 40 studies into a narrative summary, categorized based on the level of immersion offered by respective VR systems.

Enhanced immersion in VR potentially augments the effectiveness of movement training by engendering more realistic and captivating experiences for users. The immersive and interactive environments provided by VR technology enable tailored training experiences accompanied by precise, objective feedback. This review highlights the benefits of VR in human movement training and its potential to revolutionize the way training is conducted.

This systematic review contributes significantly to the existing literature by providing a comprehensive examination of the efficacy and evolution of VR in human movement training. By organizing the findings based on the level of immersion offered by VR systems, it provides valuable insights into the importance of immersion in enhancing training outcomes. In addition, this study identifies the need for future research focusing on the impacts of VR on learning and performance, as well as strategies to optimize its effectiveness and improve accessibility.

Recent research on immersive experiences in online environments for higher education has attributed a fundamental role to two distinct yet connected psychological phenomena: the feelings of being virtually present in the education environment, often simply called presence, and peak episodes of flow. The authors conceptually delimitate these two psychological facets of e-learners’ experiences and examine their interplay. The authors show how flow episodes are elicited by students’ sense of control over the online education environment, their attention being focussed on the learning tasks, and their feelings of being physically placed in the online education setting. Also, the interactivity created by the online education environment evokes an e-learner’s imagery, which in turn triggers presence feelings and episodes of flow. The authors further show that, although presence and flow are triggered by some common antecedents, they differ in the object of the individual’s immersion, and that presence feelings facilitate flow. Moreover, the authors provide practical recommendations for higher education institutions, policy makers and the academic and information and communication technology community involved in e-learning, to make sure e-learner experiences reach their fullest potential.

Challenges of conducting site visit activities, a vital component of architecture learning during the recent pandemic have proved our unreadiness in facing the digital future. The lack of understanding of learning technology has affected the education experience. Thus, there is a need to investigate immersive learning technology such as immersive virtual reality (IVR) to replace students’ concrete experience in the current learning setting. This study aims to answer: (1) What is the influence of IVR in experiential learning (EL) in enhancing the personal spatial experience? (2) Does IVR in EL influence students' approach to learning during the architecture design process?

The research was conducted as an action research design approach. Action research was employed in the first-year architecture design studio by the lecturer as a practitioner-researcher. The personal spatial experience survey was performed in the earlier phase to identify the students’ prior spatial experience. Architectural Spatial Experience Simulation (ASES) a learning tool was implemented and assessed with Architecture Design Learning Assessment (ADLA) rubric, which was developed to evaluate EL and student’s approach to learning during the architecture design learning process.

The outcomes revealed that ASES as a learning tool in EL could improve the participants’ spatial experience, particularly those with minimal prior personal spatial experience. ASES was recognized to enhance the participants’ EL experience and encourage changes in student’s approach to learning from surface to deep learning.

This research benefits the architecture design learning process by offering a learning tool and a framework to resolve challenges in performing site visit activities and digital learning. It also contributes by expanding the EL theory and students’ approach to learning knowledge in the architecture education field.