Although virtual reality (VR) has been technologically possible for decades, both logistical and pedagogical limitations have slowed progress relating to collaborating with others in virtual reality environments. This article establishes a working framework, namely embodied social translucence, to illustrate VR-based collaborative learning through the theories of social translucence and embodied cognition. To help contextualize VR tools' abilities to facilitate collaborative learning, the authors analyze collaborative virtual reality studies and evaluate three current virtual reality platforms in terms of collaborative potential. They also provide recommended best practices for facilitating and designing collaborative virtual reality learning experiences.
TopBackground
Due to the unique features and increasing affordability of the head-mounted VR tools, practical applications and research studies sprouted in recent years. Besides studies leverage VR tools to promote academic learning in various disciplines (e,g., Ahn et al., 2016; Lee et al., 2017; Lisichenko, 2015; Xie et al., 2021), studies also examined the efficacy of features provided by the tool itself, for example, the ability of manipulating objects in the virtual space (Jang et al., 2017), the ability to see the world as the participant moved their head and body (Orman et al., 2017), Yet, most of these earlier applications leveraged VR tools in a non-social, user-alone manner. In other words, each user interacts with the environment alone without socializing with other users while immersed in the virtual reality, mainly due to technological limitations. Such a drawback, however, would be mitigated with the availability of newer platforms, such as Spatial, which allows for life-like human avatars to be embodied, controlled, and voiced by actual people rather than computer-generated avatars (Spatial Systems, 2021).
Focus of the Article
Due to the lack of a theoretical foundation to elucidate the learning processes within a collaborative VR environment, this chapter first establishes a working framework of how to facilitate VR-based collaborative learning through an aggregated lens including social translucence and embodied cognition. To help contextualize VR tools’ ability to facilitate collaborative learning, three current virtual reality platforms are then evaluated in terms of collaborative potential. Based on analyses of a number of collaborative virtual reality studies, the chapter also provides recommended best practices for facilitating and designing collaborative virtual reality learning experiences.