The Effects of Interactivity on Learners’ Experience in a Visually Immersive Display Context

Abstract

This research reports empirical evidence of the pedagogical benefits of using two interactive types of immersive spherical dome screens (large and small). Results are drawn from an experiment measuring the emotional, cognitive, perceptual/attitudinal states, and learning outcomes of 102 participants divided into control/experimental groups and group/individual pedagogical contexts. Specifically, this paper aimed to investigate the extent to which using interactivity in immersive technologies has positive learning outcomes and provide a positive learning experience. Building upon the INTERACT model, our results show that, in a smaller dome, the learner’s cognitive state, perception and attitudes play a mediating role regarding the impact of interactivity on learning outcomes. However, we did not observe a difference between the larger and smaller dome as for the learning outcomes. These results bring further insight into optimal educational practices in an immersive context and are relevant for pedagogical designers and immersive technologies manufacturers.

Keywords:

• Immersion
• interactivity
• technology
• learning
• experience

Disclosure

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by MITACS (MITACS is a Canadian funding agency mainly focused on grants for graduate study. The first and fourth authors received funding from MITACS).