Integrating Case Studies in an Online Asynchronous Learning Environment: An Empirical Study to Evaluate the Effect on Community College Student Learning Outcomes and Engagement when Case Studies are Presented Using Virtual Reality

This paper presents the results of an empirical study that evaluated the learning outcomes and student engagement when case studies are presented using virtual reality integrated into an online asynchronous learning environment developed using the Open edX codebase. Virtual reality systems are becoming more frequently used in educational settings primarily because of their ability to provide visualization and interaction within an environment that closely resembles a real-world setting. Both text-based and VR-based case studies were integrated into an online course on workplace safety. The online courses consisted of multiple short video-based lectures with assessments after each. Using a between-subjects experimental design, 109 community college students were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (1) an online course with integrated case studies presented as text and images; (2) an online course with integrated case studies presented as virtual reality content. This latter condition presented the participants with a virtual manufacturing environment, asking them to navigate through it and determine the set of actions needing to be performed when encountering a potential safety infraction. Students were given both preand post-tests to measure objective learning outcomes in addition to surveys for evaluating engagement and perceived learning outcomes. Statistically significant differences were found for engagement level and perceived learning outcomes. Thus, the results of this study suggest that presenting case studies using a virtual reality-based system can enhance these two educational priorities.