Exploring the effectiveness of virtual reality as a learning tool in the context of task interruption: A systematic review

As the cost of rendering immersive virtual reality goes down, VR technology has the potential to improve the learning outcomes of educational and training programs. In this context, it is important to identify the advantages and pitfalls of using VR as a training tool. This review is an attempt to evaluate VR technology as a training tool and various factors that impact its effectiveness. It was found that virtual reality has been used and tested extensively in surgical training with mixed results. Apart from the effectiveness and the cost of VR as a training tool, the other factors that will influence the widespread adoption of this technology for training are skill retention and task interruption. If VR is to be used for longer training sessions, interruptions are inevitable in the form of restroom breaks, texting etc., and hence it is important to study their impact on learning outcomes. Hence, a brief review of these topics in the context of VR and learning has been included in this study. In conclusion, it was found that although the use of VR as a training tool holds a lot of promise, its widespread adoption will depend on its adaptability to different training settings and its impact on learning outcomes, including factors like skill retention and task interruption. •Virtual reality has been extensively used in the healthcare sector to train surgeons.•The performance of virtual reality as a training tool has proven to be at least as good as traditional training methods.•Virtual reality cannot be used as a stand-alone training tool yet and needs to be integrated into current training methods for optimum learning outcomes.•The effect of task interruption in the context of virtual reality training needs to be studied to explore its use in applications that need longer training sessions.