The varied experience of undergraduate students learning chemistry in virtual reality laboratories

Over the past two decades, there has been increased interest in understanding the prospects of virtual reality laboratories (VR Labs) in science education. VR Labs are designed to emulate a physical teaching laboratory through an immersive computer experience that affords intimate and intuitive interaction. According to a recent literature review, there is a scantiness of varied theoretical and methodological approaches concerning the student learning experience with VR Labs. Most of the studies were evaluative, seeking to establish the efficacy of VR Labs for meeting specific needs under the expectation that the mere use of them would bring about predetermined student outcomes. A phenomenographic investigation, which assumes that a person's perception is informed by their broader environment and results in multiple perspectives of the same phenomena was employed to investigate the various ways undergraduate chemistry students' experience learning with VR Labs. The inquiry is situated in an undergraduate chemistry course, where the VR Labs aligned with the course curriculum. From a purposive sample of six diverse participants, four qualitatively different experiences were discovered, which included: a) VR Labs hindered my ability to learn b) the amount of content knowledge I have and/or my prior experience influenced my learning c) the affordances I perceived enhanced my learning and d) VR Labs removed barriers I perceived to learning. The more comprehensive understanding provided by this study informs the design and development of new pedagogical approaches and innovative forms of curriculum.