Using head mounted display virtual reality simulations in large engineering classes: Operating vs observing

A barrier to using head mounted display (HMD) virtual reality (VR) in education is access to hardware for large classes. This paper compares students’ learning when engaging with an HMD VR simulation as the operator and as the observer, to evaluate whether benefits of HMD VR can be achieved without requiring all students to operate the equipment. Postgraduate engineering students (N= 117) completed a safety hazard identification exercise in a workshop. The performance of students who operated and observed was compared. Results showed that students performed similarly in the exercise that followed the simulation whether they operated HMD VR (n= 33) or observed (n= 84). The finding suggests that educators may be able to use HMD VR simulations in classes with a large enrolment, by reducing the need for investment and management of a large number of sets of HMD VR equipment