Social Processes of Learning in Virtual Reality (In press)
Abstract
In this chapter, we present evidence concerning how learning occurs in social processes in VR. We organize the chapter as follows. First, we provide a historical overview of VR research on the social processes of learning and highlight recent trends in technology influencing the types of empirical work currently being conducted. Then, we discuss four research themes related to social processes of learning, namely the roles of motivation and interest (Section 3.1), virtual agents (Section 3.2), learning in the presence of others (Section 3.3), and how collaboration facilitates learning through a constructivist perspective (Section 3.4). Within each theme, we present the theoretical context and synthesize its empirical evidence. Finally, we summarize trends, issues and future directions and conclude with a discussion on practical implications.