Immersive Environments

Synonyms

Immersive simulations; Virtual reality environments; Virtual worlds

Definition

Immersive environments are digitally mediated learning environments designed to engage users in an artificially created, make-believe “world.” Immersive environments may take on a broad range of forms, with affordances for varying degrees of sensory immersion and awareness of the user’s physical self or the presence of others. Types of immersive environments extend from massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs; e.g., World of Warcraft) and multiuser online virtual worlds (e.g., Second Life) to surround-screen projection-based virtual reality environments (e.g., Cave Automatic Virtual Environments, CAVE).

In MMORPGs, users log into the game from a computer or a game console and assume the role of a character to accomplish the goals of the game – often collaborating and competing with other distributed players who log in from their own computers. Multiuser virtual worlds are similar to...