# The Influence of Immersive and Collaborative Virtual Environments in Improving Spatial Skills
## 1 Introduction  
Virtual Reality (VR) has grown in popularity as a learning tool over the past decade, including among academics and educators [1]. The improved user experience in terms of interaction, immersion, and quality of information [2], together with the decreasing cost of the technology, have propelled this expansion. Many others have highlighted the advantages of using VR for education, including learner satisfaction [3], improved motivation and problem-solving abilities [4; 5], and the advantages of sensory-based learning [6; 7; 8]. Studies of using VR-based platforms for the acquisition of knowledge are now found across a wide range of disciplines, including medicine [9], rehabilitation [10], industrial training [11], evacuation plans [12], urban planning [13], journalism [14], sports [15], geometry [16], design [17], biology [18], physics [19], and engineering [20].  
In the past decade, many researchers have compared students' learning in VR with learning through other mediums. Some examples include the work of [PERSON] et al. [21], [22], [PERSON] and [PERSON] [23], and [PERSON] et al. [24]. One area of education that is particularly interesting for VR applications is collaborative learning. Collaborative learning is a pedagogical method in which individual interact in order to solve problems together [25]. [PERSON] [26] is considered to have introduced the concept of collaborative learning in university-level teaching and outlined the advantages of collaborative learning over individual learning.  
Virtual collaborative environments are systems that connect multiple users who interact in real-time in a virtual space via an internet connection and can serve as a platform for collaborative learning. Virtual collaborative environments that allow specialists from different disciplines to solve complex problems together are promising venues for research and for the improvement of work and productivity [27]. Activities taking place in virtual collaborative environments may be valuable for enhancing STEM education. [PERSON] et al. [28]concluded that it is possible to meet the future engineering industry demands through training programs involving collaborative 3D modeling environments. Furthermore, according to [PERSON] et al. [29], VR can be a powerful tool for training spatial abilities. While virtual collaborative environments are promising for STEM education, applications utilizing this technology have not yet been made in the area of spatial skills training. Spatial skills training is a popular area of study in STEM education because researchers believe that improving spatial skills can help students to succeed in STEM [30]. Thus, it would be valuable to explore the application of collaborative virtual environments to spatial training.  
In the present work, we add to the research on virtual collaborative environments for educational settings by describing the design and validation of an immersive VR application used for a collaborative exercise for the construction of 3D models. We tested the application with 29 students with the goal of finding out whether the students' spatial skills were improved through using the application, and whether the students found the application to have good usability and functionality. The main contribution of this work is to present evidence that performing a group modeling exercise in a virtual collaborative environment can improve performance on spatial tests. This document is structured such that, following a review of the most relevant literature, we describe the materials and methods of this study, present the results, and finally discuss the results and provide our conclusions.