Immersive Virtual Reality based Gamified Stereochemistry Learning

Abstract

As technology continues to evolve, its integration into instruction will undoubtedly play a vital role in shaping the future of education. Serious educational virtual reality games provide interactive and immersive three-dimensional environments to explore and experiment with complex scientific concepts. This is particularly true for visual concepts such as those frequently occurring in chemistry subjects. This research presents a game titled “VR Stereo Thrills & Spills” to understand and review an important chemistry concept of stereoisomerism. Learning stereochemistry relies on students’ representational competence and visuo-spatial thinking skills. So, a game is developed to address these cognitive challenges faced by chemistry students and the Bloom’s taxonomy based game design follows a step-wise approach to present the content. The effectiveness of the developed game in learning stereoisomerism is evaluated by conducting a user study on 31 student participants. The results indicate that the developed game has a positive impact on student performance. The paired t-test indicated a significant improvement (t = 4.85, p = 0.00) in post-test marks (M = 0.64, SD = 0.22) compared to pre-test marks (M = 0.44, SD = 0.14) and a moderate correlation between game scores and post-test results (r = 0.47, p = 0.01). This demonstrates the efficacy of the proposed game as a valuable learning tool. Our findings support the use of immersive technologies and serious games in stereochemistry educational settings, as they can provide significant cognitive advantages through interactive and engaging methods.