Real-time virtual reality co-creation: collective intelligence and consciousness for student engagement and focused attention within online communities

ABSTRACT

This study investigated student engagement and focused attention in three co-creation environments (a paper-based environment, the 2D Jamboard platform, and the CoSpaces virtual reality (VR) platform). The study utilized a quasi-experimental research design with a total of 66 tenth-grade students including 34 males (52%) and 32 females (48%) from two English classes at a public senior high school in northern Taiwan. To assess the effects of the environments, the classes were divided into a control group, experimental group A, and experimental group B, with a valid sample of N = 22 in each group. The results showed that the three co-creation environments were not significant causal factors of either the learners’ behavioral and cognitive engagement or their focused attention. However, co-creation in VR structure visualization indeed resulted in significant effects on emotional engagement due to its novel and immersive environment. For improved focused attention and engagement, especially in the behavioral and cognitive domains, the present study suggests that co-creation be implemented as a semester-long project to allow thorough discussion and idea synthesis and to avoid underestimation of the value and strength of co-creation tools.

KEYWORDS:

• Co-creation
• virtual reality
• student engagement
• attention
• online learning

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Higher Education Sprout Project of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) and the Ministry of Education (MOE), Taiwan, as well as the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan through Grant numbers MOST 107-2628-H-009-004-MY3 and MOST 105-2511-S-009-013-MY5. We would like to thank NYCU’s ILTM (Interactive Learning Technology and Motivation, see: http://iltm.nctu.edu.tw) lab members and the students for helping conduct the experiment. We would also thank Pin-chia Feng for her support and suggestions for the study as well as the reviewers who provided valuable comments.

Non-commercial conflict of interest statement

The authors have no competing interests or other interests nor a consulting relationship with any commercial product/company that might be perceived to influence the use of (digital) tools or the interpretation of the article. The web-based Jamboard is free application software included in G Suite for Education while Google CoSpaces Edu, used both by the teacher and students in this research, is a basic, free trial for educational purposes.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Higher Education Sprout Project of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) and the Ministry of Education (MOE), Taiwan, as well as the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan through Grant numbers MOST 107-2628-H-009-004-MY3 and MOST 105-2511-S-009-013-MY5.

Notes on contributors

Hsin-Yun Wang

Hsin-Yun Wang is currently a Ph.D. student at the Institute of Education at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. Her research interests include technology-enhanced co-creation and its effects on EFL education and motivation.

Jerry Chih-Yuan Sun

Jerry Chih-Yuan Sun is a Professor of eLearning at the Institute of Education at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University where he leads the Interactive Learning Technology and Motivation Lab (see http://ILTM.nctu.edu.tw). His research focuses on assessing innovative feedback technologies and their effects on student learning and motivation.