Experiencing historical events through a VR environment to enhance learning achievement, interest, motivation, and emotional reflections

Virtual reality (VR) provides a learner-centered environment to students with a more authentic sense of the historical context. This may help students interact with the content, construct knowledge and inspire reflection upon historical events. However, extant research has seldom used historical VR learning environments to elicit students’ affective states and foster reflections on historical incidents for younger students. This study examined the effectiveness of a VR learning environment crafted using CoSpaces Edu to immerse elementary students within two significant uprisings against colonial rule in Taiwan: the Tapani and Musha Incidents. Fifty-nine sixth graders from two classes participated in this study. One class was randomly assigned to a control group receiving traditional multimedia instruction; the other experienced a VR environment. Results revealed that the VR group outperformed the control group on learning achievement and situational interest, including novelty, exploration intention, instant enjoyment, and attention demand. Additionally, the affective component of motivation was significantly higher for the VR group. Qualitative analysis showed that VR students expressed more diverse and reflective emotions, whereas another group students exhibited indifference. These findings suggest that desktop VR may enhance cognitive and affective engagement in history education, making learning more engaging and emotionally resonant for younger adolescents.