Abstract
The majority of mixed reality scenarios have been mainly the subject of game engines. ‘Mixed Reality’ describes the combination of virtual environments and natural user interfaces. Here, the user’s field of view is controlled by his natural head movements via a head mounted display. Data gloves e.g. allow direct interaction with virtual objects and omnidirectional treadmills enable unrestricted navigation through a virtual environment by natural walking movements. To evaluate perspectives and potential for the use of mixed reality settings within engineering education an experimental study has been carried out, focusing on the impact of spatial presence and flow on cognitive processes. To assess the effects of natural user interfaces on cognitive processes, a two-group-plan (treatment and control group) was established. The mixed reality simulator was used as main stimulus of the treatment group whereas the control group used a laptop as interaction device. The learning environment was kept constant over both groups. The data were collected and interpreted with quantitative methods. Constraints of data collection exist since the influence of the hardware can only be evaluated within a set of independent variables, which consists of a combination of different user interfaces to a mixed reality simulator. Thereby not all of the disruptive factors could be eliminated. In this paper the study and the detailed results are described, which showed advantages especially regarding affective and motivational factors of virtual environments for cognitive processes. In particular, the depth of the resulting spatial presence and the phenomenon of flow are discussed. The paper closes with a discussion of the question, to what extend such innovative technologies establish new possibilities for educational sciences and pedagogics, especially focusing on engineering education and the field of virtual experiments.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
M. Kerres, Mediendidaktik: Konzeption und Entwicklung mediengestützter Lernangebote, 3rd edn. Oldenbourg Verlag, München, 2012
D. Ewert, K. Schuster, D. Johansson, D. Schilberg, S. Jeschke, Intensifying learner’s experience by incorporating the virtual theatre into engineering education. In: Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference. Berlin, 2013, pp. 207–212
S. Malkawi, O. Al-Araidah, Students’ assessment of interactive distance experimentation in nuclear reactor physics laboratory education. European Journal of Engineering Education 38 (5), 2013, pp. 512–518
B. Witmer, M. Singer, Measuring presence in virtual environments: A presence questionnaire. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 7 (3), 1998, pp. 225–240
P. Zimbardo, R. Gerrig, Psychologie, 7th edn. Springer, Heidelberg, 2003
J. Sweller, Element Interactivity and Intrinsic, Extraneous, and Germane Cognitive Load. Educational Psychology Review 22 (2), 2010, pp. 123–138
D. Johansson, Convergence in Mixed Reality-Virtuality Environments. Facilitating Natural User Behaviour. No. 53 In: Örebro Studies in Technology. Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden, 2012
A. Hebbel-Seeger, Motiv: Motivation?!– Warum Lernen in virtuellen Welten trotzdem)funktionieren kann. Zeitschrift für E-Learning – Lernkultur und Bildungstechnologie 7 (1), 2012, pp. 23–35
F. Müller, Intresse und Lernen. Report – Zeitschrift für Weiterbildungsforschung 29 (1), 2006, pp. 48–62
J. Murray, Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. MIT Press, Cambridge, 1998
M. Slater, M. Usoh, A. Steed, Taking Steps: The Influence of a Walking Technique on Presence in Virtual Reality. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 2 (3), 1995, pp. 201–219
Virtuix Technologies, 2015. http://www.virtuix.com/
M. Csikszentmihalyi, J. LeFevre, Optimal experience in work and leisure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 56 (5), 1989, pp. 815–822
F. Rheinberg, S. Engeser, R. Vollmeyer, Measuring Components of Flow: the Flow-Shot-Scale. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Positive Psychology Summit. Washington DC, USA, 2002
M. Slater, Measuring Presence: A Response to the Witmer and Singer Presence Questionnaire. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 8 (5), 1999, pp. 560–565
D. Johansson, L. de Vin, Towards Convergence in a Virtual Environment: Omnidirectional Movement, Physical Feedback, Social Interaction and Vision. Mechatronic Systems Journal 2 (1), 2012, pp. 11–22
W. Edelmann, Lernpsychologie, 5th edn. Beltz PVU, Weinheim, 1996
P. Vorderer, W. Wirth, F. Gouveia, F. Biocca, T. Saari, F. Jäncke, S. Böcking, H. Schramm, A. Gysbers, T. Hartmann, C. Klimmt, J. Laarni, N. Ravaja, A. Sacau, T. Baumgartner, P. Jäncke. Mec spatial presence questionnaire (mec-spq): Short documentation and instructions for application. report to the european community, project presence: Mec (ist-2001-37661), 2004. http://www.ijk.hmt-hannover.de/presence
Acknowledgments
The present work is supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the project “Excellent teaching and learning in engineering sciences (ELLI)”. The authors would like to thank Prof. Martina Ziefle for constant advice on the presented work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schuster, K., Richert, A., Jeschke, S. (2016). New Perspectives for Engineering Education – About the Potential of Mixed Reality for Learning and Teaching Processes. In: Jeschke, S., Isenhardt, I., Hees, F., Henning, K. (eds) Automation, Communication and Cybernetics in Science and Engineering 2015/2016. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42620-4_32
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42620-4_32
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-42619-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-42620-4
eBook Packages: Mathematics and StatisticsMathematics and Statistics (R0)