Virtual reality learning environments: using high-fidelity avatars to enhance distance learning experience

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) became the primary space for education during the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdowns. One of the additions that specifically VR has to offer is its potential to incorporate some of the qualities that define interpersonal communication and typically lack in distance-learning VLEs. This study's aim is exploration of those qualities to appreciate Virtual Reality Learning Environments (VRLEs) as a supplementary tool for distance learning and its impact on knowledge acquisition processes, with the particular objectives of evaluating usability, usefulness, and realism of Non-Verbal Cues (NVCs) capture. Toward this end a multi-user VRLE prototype was developed and utilized for the delivery of a live lecture by a real professor of a MSc programme. The professor's body motion and facial expressions were captured in real-time and solved onto a high-fidelity avatar. In total, a group of 20 students audited the lecture via the VRLE and evaluated the modalities and experience offered compared to conventional VLEs. Additionally, knowledge acquisition was directly correlated to another group of 20 students, who audited the same lecture only via conventional VLEs. Evaluation results provide important insight regarding the learning experience between the two settings and how incorporation of NVCs can have a positive impact.