1887

A Virtual Tour of the Cell: Impact of Virtual Reality on Student Learning and Engagement in the STEM Classroom

    Authors: Jennifer A. Bennett1,*, Colin P. Saunders2
    VIEW AFFILIATIONS HIDE AFFILIATIONS
    Affiliations: 1: Department of Biology and Earth Science, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Program, Otterbein University, Westerville, OH 43081; 2: Center for Teaching and Learning, Otterbein University, Westerville, OH 43081
    AUTHOR AND ARTICLE INFORMATION AUTHOR AND ARTICLE INFORMATION
    • Received 18 July 2018 Accepted 28 February 2019 Published 26 July 2019
    • ©2019 Author(s). Published by the American Society for Microbiology

    • [open-access] This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ and https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode), which grants the public the nonexclusive right to copy, distribute, or display the published work.
    • †Supplemental materials available at http://asmscience.org/jmbe
    • Corresponding Author. Mailing Address: Department of Biology and Earth Science, Otterbein University, 1 South Grove Street, Westerville, OH 43081. Phone: 614-823-1857. Fax: 614-823-3042. E-mail: [email protected].
    Source: J. Microbiol. Biol. Educ. July 2019 vol. 20 no. 2 doi:10.1128/jmbe.v20i2.1658
MyBook is a cheap paperback edition of the original book and will be sold at uniform, low price.
  • XML
    30.54 Kb
  • PDF
    350.95 Kb
  • HTML
    30.40 Kb

    Abstract:

    This study assesses the educational impact of virtual reality (VR) on student learning and engagement in a sophomore-level cell biology course taught at Otterbein University. Using VR, students toured the cell and its environment within the human body. Next, students completed a team challenge where they worked as pairs to match images of cell components taken from the virtual reality application with the appropriate name. Finally, students were given a voluntary survey that presented questions about their perceptions of the VR experience and the associated cell sorting activity. Survey results revealed that a majority of students enjoyed the VR experience and felt that it had a positive impact on their education. These results indicate the potential supportive role that VR may have in a variety of undergraduate courses.

References & Citations

1. Yang YJD, Allen T, Abdullahi SM, Pelphrey KA, Volkmar FR, Chapman SB 2018 Neural mechanisms of behavioral change in young adults with high-functioning autism receiving virtual reality social cognition training: a pilot study Autism Res 11 713 725 10.1002/aur.1941 29517857 6001642 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aur.1941
2. Kuriakose S, Lahiri U 2017 Design of a physiology-sensitive VR-based social communication platform for children with autism IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng 25 1180 1191 10.1109/TNSRE.2016.2613879 28114071 http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TNSRE.2016.2613879
3. Smith MJ, Smith JD, Fleming MF, Jordan N, Brown CH, Humm L, Olsen D, Bell MD 2017 Mechanism of action for obtaining job offers with virtual reality job interview training Psychiatr Serv 68 747 750 10.1176/appi.ps.201600217 28292223 5495604 http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201600217
4. Serino S, Pedroli E, Tuena C, De Leo G, Stramba-Badiale M, Goulene K, Mariotti NG, Riva G 2017 A novel virtual reality-based training protocol for the enhancement of the “mental frame syncing” in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease: a development-of-concept trial Front Aging Neurosci 9 240 10.3389/fnagi.2017.00240 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2017.00240
5. White PJ, Moussavi Z 2016 Neurocognitive treatment for a patient with Alzheimer’s disease using a virtual reality navigational environment J Exp Neurosci 10 129 135 10.4137/JEN.S40827 5102253 http://dx.doi.org/10.4137/JEN.S40827
6. Bartlett JD, Lawrence JE, Stewart ME, Nakano N, Khanduja V 2018 Does virtual reality simulation have a role in training trauma and orthopaedic surgeons? Bone Joint J 100-B 559 565 10.1302/0301-620X.100B5.BJJ-2017-1439 29701089 http://dx.doi.org/10.1302/0301-620X.100B5.BJJ-2017-1439
7. Mazur T, Mansour TR, Mugge L, Medhkour A 2018 Virtual reality-based simulators for cranial tumor surgery: a systematic review World Neurosurg 110 414 422 10.1016/j.wneu.2017.11.132 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2017.11.132
8. Evans CH, Schenarts KD 2016 Evolving educational techniques in surgical training Surg Clin North Am 96 71 88 10.1016/j.suc.2015.09.005 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.suc.2015.09.005
9. Albuha Al-Mussawi RM, Farid F 2016 Computer-based technologies in dentistry: types and applications J Dent (Tehran) 13 215 222
10. Chamunyonga C, Burbery J, Caldwell P, Rutledge P, Fielding A, Crowe S 2018 Utilising the virtual environment for radiotherapy training systems to support undergraduate teaching of IMRT, VMAT, DCAT treatment planning, and QA concepts J Med Imaging Radiat Sci 49 31 38 10.1016/j.jmir.2017.11.002 30479285 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmir.2017.11.002
11. Hardcastle T, Wood A 2018 The utility of virtual reality surgical simulation in the undergraduate otorhinolaryngology curriculum J Laryngol Otol 132 12 1072 1076 10.1017/S0022215118002025 30457086 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0022215118002025
12. Maresky HS, Oikonomou A, Ali I, Ditkofsky N, Pakkal M, Ballyk B 2018 Virtual reality and cardiac anatomy: exploring immersive three-dimensional cardiac imaging, a pilot study in undergraduate medical anatomy education Clin Anat 32 2 238 243 10.1002/ca.23292 30295333 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ca.23292
13. Johnston APR, Rae J, Ariotti N, Bailey B, Lilja A, Webb R, Ferguson C, Maher S, Davis TP, Webb RI, McGhee J, Parton RG 2017 Journey to the centre of the cell: virtual reality immersion into scientific data Traffic 19 105 110 10.1111/tra.12538 29159991 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/tra.12538
14. Stains M, Harshman J, Barker MK, Chasteen SV, Cole R, DeChenne-Peters SE, Eagan MK, Esson JM, Knight JK, Laski FA, Levis-Fitzgerald M, Lee CJ, Lo SM, McDonnell LM, McKay TA, Michelotti N, Musgrove A, Palmer MS, Plank KM, Rodela TM, Sanders ER, Schimpf NG, Schulte PM, Smith MK, Stetzer M, Van Valkenburgh B, Vinson E, Weir LK, Wendel PJ, Wheeler LB, Young AM 2018 Anatomy of STEM teaching in North American universities Science 359 1468 1470 10.1126/science.aap8892 29599232 6310123 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aap8892

Supplemental Material

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/jmbe/10.1128/jmbe.v20i2.1658
2019-07-26
2020-06-04

Abstract:

This study assesses the educational impact of virtual reality (VR) on student learning and engagement in a sophomore-level cell biology course taught at Otterbein University. Using VR, students toured the cell and its environment within the human body. Next, students completed a team challenge where they worked as pairs to match images of cell components taken from the virtual reality application with the appropriate name. Finally, students were given a voluntary survey that presented questions about their perceptions of the VR experience and the associated cell sorting activity. Survey results revealed that a majority of students enjoyed the VR experience and felt that it had a positive impact on their education. These results indicate the potential supportive role that VR may have in a variety of undergraduate courses.

Highlighted Text: Show | Hide
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/jmbe/20/2/jmbe-20-37.html?itemId=/content/journal/jmbe/10.1128/jmbe.v20i2.1658&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Author and Article Information

  • Received 18 July 2018 Accepted 28 February 2019 Published 26 July 2019
  • ©2019 Author(s). Published by the American Society for Microbiology

  • [open-access] This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ and https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode), which grants the public the nonexclusive right to copy, distribute, or display the published work.
  • †Supplemental materials available at http://asmscience.org/jmbe
  • Corresponding Author. Mailing Address: Department of Biology and Earth Science, Otterbein University, 1 South Grove Street, Westerville, OH 43081. Phone: 614-823-1857. Fax: 614-823-3042. E-mail: [email protected].

Figures

A Virtual Tour of the Cell: Impact of Virtual Reality on Student Learning and Engagement in the STEM Classroom
[com.pub2web.rdf.cci.facet.ContentItem[id=http://asm.metastore.ingenta.com/content/author/jmbe/10.1128/jmbe.v20i2.1658-1,webId=/content/author/jmbe/10.1128/jmbe.v20i2.1658-1,properties={foaf_givenname=Jennifer A., foaf_name=Jennifer A. Bennett, foaf_surname=Bennett, pub_correspondenceLink=*, pub_isAffiliatedWith=[com.pub2web.rdf.cci.facet.ContentItem[id=http://asm.metastore.ingenta.com/content/affiliation/jmbe/10.1128/jmbe.v20i2.1658-aff1]]}], com.pub2web.rdf.cci.facet.ContentItem[id=http://asm.metastore.ingenta.com/content/author/jmbe/10.1128/jmbe.v20i2.1658-2,webId=/content/author/jmbe/10.1128/jmbe.v20i2.1658-2,properties={foaf_givenname=Colin P., foaf_name=Colin P. Saunders, foaf_surname=Saunders, pub_isAffiliatedWith=[com.pub2web.rdf.cci.facet.ContentItem[id=http://asm.metastore.ingenta.com/content/affiliation/jmbe/10.1128/jmbe.v20i2.1658-aff2]]}]]
Citation: Bennett J, Saunders C. 2019. A virtual tour of the cell: impact of virtual reality on student learning and engagement in the stem classroom . J. Microbiol. Biol. Educ. 20(2): doi:10.1128/jmbe.v20i2.1658
/content/jmbe/10.1128/jmbe.v20i2.1658.f1-jmbe-20-37
FIGURE 1
Student answers to “yes/no” virtual reality (VR) survey questions. A) Percentage of students who responded “yes” versus “no” when asked whether VR enhanced their learning experience in the cell biology course. B) Response to survey question asking students whether the combination of VR and a timed cell sorting activity improved their understanding of cellular processes.
jmbe/20/2/jmbe-20-37f1_thmb.gif
jmbe/20/2/jmbe-20-37f1.gif
Image of FIGURE 1

Click to view

FIGURE 1

Student answers to “yes/no” virtual reality (VR) survey questions. A) Percentage of students who responded “yes” versus “no” when asked whether VR enhanced their learning experience in the cell biology course. B) Response to survey question asking students whether the combination of VR and a timed cell sorting activity improved their understanding of cellular processes.

Source: J. Microbiol. Biol. Educ. July 2019 vol. 20 no. 2 doi:10.1128/jmbe.v20i2.1658
Download as Powerpoint
/content/jmbe/10.1128/jmbe.v20i2.1658.f2-jmbe-20-37
FIGURE 2
Likert scale responses to virtual reality (VR) survey questions. A) Answers to whether students would recommend the VR classroom/lab activity to others. B) Likert responses for whether students would recommend innovative learning tools like VR in their other classes.
jmbe/20/2/jmbe-20-37f2_thmb.gif
jmbe/20/2/jmbe-20-37f2.gif
Image of FIGURE 2

Click to view

FIGURE 2

Likert scale responses to virtual reality (VR) survey questions. A) Answers to whether students would recommend the VR classroom/lab activity to others. B) Likert responses for whether students would recommend innovative learning tools like VR in their other classes.

Source: J. Microbiol. Biol. Educ. July 2019 vol. 20 no. 2 doi:10.1128/jmbe.v20i2.1658
Download as Powerpoint

Back to top
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Please check the format of the address you have entered.
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error