Exploring the Effect of Virtual Reality on Learning in General Chemistry Students with Low Visual-Spatial Skills

Studies have demonstrated that visual-spatial skills correlate with student performance and success in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The ability to reason with spatial information is essential for conceptual subjects like chemistry, a deep understanding of which requires dealing with the invisible world of atoms and molecules and linking microscopic properties to macroscopic observables. The link between spatial ability and chemistry achievement is well-studied and documented. The extent to which various teaching tools can help students visualize abstract physicochemical concepts is an active area of research. Virtual reality (VR) can leverage the proximity effect and create immersive learning experiences for students struggling with spatial imagery. For this reason, many VR resources have been developed to teach chemistry, yet the number of studies exploring the potential of VR to enhance spatial ability and chemistry achievement has so far been limited. Here, we report on an exploratory study conducted at a large public institution to evaluate the effect of virtual reality on learning in chemistry students with low visual-spatial skills. Spatial ability was assessed using a visual-spatial pretest. Those students who failed the test were randomized into the VR intervention and control groups. While no statistically significant difference in class performance between these two groups was observed, our data showed some improvement in the median scores in the VR intervention group compared to the control. Future studies enrolling a higher number of participants would help to make more definitive conclusions about the effect of VR on students with low visual-spatial skills.