Learner immersion engagement in the 3D virtual world: principles emerging from the DELVE project

This paper investigates the issues surrounding the use of 3D virtual worlds to enhance learner immersion through improved learner engagement. It is based on findings from the JISC-funded DEsign of Learning spaces in 3D Virtual Environments (DELVE) project at the University of Nottingham and the Open University. Given continued confusion about the term immersion, what it means for a learner to be immersed, and the relationship between immersion, presence and engagement, notions of immersion and engagement in 3D virtual environments are explored in the context of previous published studies ranging from virtual reality to psychology. The resultant improved understanding of the terminology is then used as the basis for coding results from a qualitative, inductive analysis of 20 students that undertook a substantive learning task in the virtual environment Second Life. Emergent themes from the analysis identify key factors that act to both enhance and restrict learner engagement in 3D virtual worlds and a set of principles for practitioners who wish to use 3D virtual environments to enhance learner engagement is presented. 1. Background The term ‘engagement’ is in common usage by educational practitioners and researchers involved in e-learning, with enhanced learner engagement being highlighted as a central in enhanced learning effectiveness (Zhang et al., 2005). However, the term exists within a wider context of more general notions of immersion and a learner’s motivation to engage is an essential precursor for any immersive learning activity. Consequently, engagement remains a vital factor in the success of many e-learning activities (Keller and Suzuki, 2004; Keller, 1997), particularly those in which the use of immersive, 3D virtual worlds is proposed. As a result, consideration of the ways in which learner engagement fits into the wider picture of immersive technologies, together with the factors that generate or obstruct engaging experiences in 3D virtual worlds, should be a core consideration for any educator proposing to use these technologies. However, this aspect all too often remains neglected by educators seduced by the plethora of possibilities offered by 3D virtual worlds, the desire to use the most up-todate technologies in their teaching and the mistaken belief that the more advanced the learning technology is the better the learning will be (see Mount and Chambers (2008) for a discussion of this issue in relation to the use of podcasting). The clear danger, therefore, is that educators expend significant resources on developing learning spaces and learning activities in 3D virtual worlds that fail to engage their learners properly because inadequate account of what it is to be engaged in a 3D virtual world has been taken, and the factors that promote and obstruct engagement in such environments have not been assessed. The work presented in this paper originates from the JISC-funded DELVE project (DEsign of Learning spaces in 3D Virtual Environments) (see Minocha et al., 2008) which responds to this danger. In DELVE the inter-relationships that exist between immersion and engagement in 3D virtual worlds have been explored, together with the identification of the factors that affect the level of engagement experienced by learners.