Biology Faculty Articles

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2023

Publication Title

International Journal of Distance Education Technologies

Keywords

Health Professions Student Learning and Engagement, Immersive Learning, Virtual Classroom

ISSN

1539-3100

Volume

21

Issue/No.

1

First Page

1

Last Page

19

Abstract

Guided by constructivist theory, this study examines health professions student learning and engagement in the virtual classroom (VC) setting. Students (N=52) participated in a one-week VC prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. After participation, students were surveyed to discern their impressions of the experience, including the administration of a presence questionnaire, a key indicator of virtual environment (VE) efficacy. High student presence scores were significantly correlated with the perception that the VC facilitated learning (r = .573, p = .001). Conversely, students who perceived the course content as challenging were less likely to recommend the VC as a viable alternative learning platform. Furthermore, in terms of presence, undergraduate and graduate students were not significantly different. In summary, health professions students view immersive technologies favorably and may benefit from using such platforms as alternative or supplemental learning tools regardless of their academic level.

Comments

This research was supported by the NSU Health Profession Division Grant [grant number 334510].

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ORCID ID

0000-0002-9739-4039

ResearcherID

L-6078-2019

DOI

10.4018/IJDET.317364

Peer Reviewed

Included in

Biology Commons

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