The potential of immersive virtual reality for representations in design education

This paper examines the potential of immersive virtual reality technology for design education. A quasi-experimental study has been conducted with 40 students of different expertise levels. The students analysed a design representation using one of the two visualisation technologies: immersive virtual reality (IVR) and non-immersive virtual reality (nIVR). The results show that the expertise in the used technology and the expertise in the design domain significantly affect design understanding. On the other hand, the effect of contextual expertise was not found significant. Spatial ability affected design understanding in nIVR but not in the IVR. Visualisation technology did not have an overall effect on understanding, but IVR helped students with lower expertise to understand specific aspects of a design better (e.g. rotation-based mechanisms). The study suggests that researchers and educators control the students’ expertise when assessing the effect of technology on design education. Overall, the results support the constructivist learning theory, as IVR can support context-dependent and context-independent understanding.