Virtual Terrorist Attack on the Computer Science Building: Design and Evaluation of a Research Methodology

This paper describes the design and initial evaluation of a virtual environment and associated research model for the examination of affectively intense learning. The environment is a virtual computer science building on a university campus, which includes a number of affectively intense effects, such as explosions, fires, and interactive tools for controlling these events. The research model is based on the assumption that effective learning in these types of environments will occur with high levels of perceived affective intensity, presence, and knowledge acquisition. An initial evaluation of the environment and research model was carried out with five participants, within the context of a terrorist-attack scenario. The results indicated that both physiological and behavioral responses corresponded to affectively intense events in the environment, and that the environment and model can serve as effective tools for the systematic exploration of affectively intense learning with virtual environments. 1. Virtual Reality in Education Virtual and Augmented reality environments have been used as tools for education and training in many settings in areas including industry [1], the military [2], and schools [3, 4]. Given advances in technology, and the need for new and creative tools to facilitate learning, it is no wonder that there have been an increasing number of applications of virtual environments as a learning tool. Unfortunately, there has been much more development than evaluation. One exception was a recent report by Salzman and colleagues [4]. This paper reported on a series of evaluation studies on the ScienceSpace virtual environment. ScienceSpace consists of virtual worlds designed to teach children complex abstract physics and chemistry concepts in NewtonWorld, MaxwellWorld, and PaulingWorld. This project constitutes one of the most ambitious and creative uses of virtual reality for learning. In cases where an outcome comparison was made, and inferential statistics were applied, results on the efficacy of the system were mixed in terms of pre-post test gains and comparisons with nonimmersive systems. The results of other comparisons of Virtual Reality versus other learning methods also fail to find a consistent advantage for Virtual Reality environments [5]. This lack of efficacy evidence is due, in part, to a lack of systematic examination of the component factors that make up VR environments and their impact on learning. This has resulted in a general lack of knowledge as to what factors are most important for learning, and how these are mediated by other important variables such as the learner and the desired outcomes. At the outset of their report on their review of ScienceWorld, Salzman and colleagues noted that: Designers and evaluators of immersive virtual reality systems have many ideas concerning how virtual reality can facilitate learning. However, we have little information concerning which of virtual reality’s features provide the most leverage for enhancing understanding or how to customize learning [4]. The present experiment is intended as the first step in such an examination, with a focus on affectively intense learning. 2. Affectively-Intense-Learning Research