Enhancing 21st-century competencies via virtual reality digital content creation

Abstract

This study aimed to foster development of the 21st-century five core competencies, including Creativity and innovation, Critical thinking and problem solving, Communication, Collaboration, and Computer-information literacy using Student-Centered Active Learning in an instructional design in which student groups created their own virtual reality content. Fifty humanities students participated. Mixed-methods data collection included a questionnaire, VR artifacts grades, student reflective journals, and focus group interviews. The most important findings were that (1) the instructional design of the study led to improvement in all of the five competencies of .01 significance or better (2) additional cycles of VR artifact production led to increases in empirical quality, and (3) the participants also found the hands-on VR creation projects to be distinctive and motivating. This VR content creation project provides detailed implications and guidance for instructors seeking to replicate a hands-on technology-oriented instructional design in order to strengthen the 21st-century core competencies.

Keywords:

• VR production
• critical thinking
• problem solving
• computer-information literacy
• creativity
• active learning

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wen-Chi Vivian Wu

Dr. Wen-Chi Vivian Wu, who received her doctorate in Education from USA in 2006, is a distinguished professor of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at Asia University, Taiwan. Her recent research areas include application of technology in instruction, computer-assisted language learning (CALL), mobile learning, teaching assistant robots, English for Specific Purposes, learner motivation for English as a global language and learner-centered instruction.

Kinnosuke Manabe

Kinnosuke Manabe is a doctoral student of National Central University. His research area is computerassisted language learning.

Michael W. Marek

Dr. Michael Marek is an emeritus professor of Mass Communiation/Electronic Media at Wayne State College, Wayne, NE, USA. He remains active in scholarly work, with several recent manuscripts approved for peer-review publication, including several journal articles and book chapters on instructional design for use of technology in teaching, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and particularly using multimedia resources.

Yu Shu

Dr. Yu Shu is an assistant professor of the College of Languages at National Taichung University of Science and Technology. Her research interests include educational technology, internet behavior and AR/VR in learning.