Conclusion—Strategic Planning for R&D on Immersive Learning

Abstract

This chapter articulates a Grand Challenge of applied, collective research. In our judgment, we must establish educational research laboratories with access to the next generations of tools and complementary research agendas to rapidly accumulate knowledge. Immersive technologies cannot be examined in the hope of changing one parameter and observing the effects. Rather, immersion, particularly VR and MUVEs, by their very nature alter perspective, context, and even the participants’ sense of self, while immersion in the form of MR and AR alters our sense of participation in the external environment. Design strategies for this scholarly work include applied, collective research; studies on what works when for whom, it what context; and research balanced between design and evaluation. Our illustrative research agenda includes thematic areas: authenticity, representation of the self, social immersion, and technological support and infrastructure. We also suggest developing implementation testbeds that provide authentic contexts to judge the educational value of immersive learning experiences.