Implicit Potential of Immersive Technologies Implementation in

the Educational Process at the Universities: World Experience

Kateryna M. Binytska

1 a

, Olha O. Bilyakovska

2 b

, Oleksandra I. Yankovych

3,4 c

Galyna V. Buchkivska

1 d

, Olena P. Binytska

1 e

, Valentyna V. Greskova

1 f

Inna P. Ocheretna

5 g

, Oleksandr Yu. Burov

6 h

and Svitlana H. Lytvynova

6 i

Khmelnytskyi Humanitarian-Pedagogical Academy, 139 Proskurivskoho pidpillia Str., Khmelnytskyi, 29000, Ukraine

Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, 1 Universytetska Str., Lviv, 79000, Ukraine

Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University, 2 Maksyma Kryvonosa Str., Ternopil, 46027, Ukraine

Kujawy and Pomorze University in Bydgoshch, 55-57 Toru

nska Str., 85-023, Bydgoshch, Poland

Khmelnytskyi Professional College of Trade and Economics of Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics, 114

Kamianetska Str., Khmelnytskyi, 29016, Ukraine

Institute for Digitalisation of Education of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, 9 M. Berlynskoho

Str., Kyiv, 04060, Ukraine

Keywords:

Immersive Learning Technologies, Professional Training, University, World Experience.

Abstract:

The article identiﬁes the implicit potential of immersive technologies implementation in in the educational

space of universities around the world. The content of basic research concepts has been determined. The

advantages and disadvantages of using immersive technologies have been analyzed. The achievements of the

world’s universities have been clariﬁed: the use of immersive technologies in the professional training of the

future archaeologists to perform work on archaeological excavations has been reﬂected; in training architects

and engineers for computer modeling of any of the most complex projects; in the training of the future pilots

to guide the landing of aircraft on the aircraft carrier; in training rescuers to extinguish ﬁres and rescue people;

in the training of the future physicians for surgery or for experiments with hazardous chemicals. Emphasis

is placed on the use of immersive technologies in the education of students with special educational needs to

create inclusive learning environment, taking into account the needs and capabilities of each student. Based on

the analysis of world experience in the use of immersive technologies in the educational space of universities,

it was found that these technologies are used in the following areas: a) immersive learning technologies

are actively used during distance learning, which allows, in particular during video conferencing to improve

learning efﬁciency (University of British Columbia); b) to determine the level of empathy for the problem of

homelessness, which allows to get the social experience of a person who becomes homeless (Central Paciﬁc

Institute in Hawaii); c) to study the effects of ocean oxidation on coral reefs, to provide knowledge about

the environmental problem and to develop negative emotions in students about human activities that harm

the beautiful and pristine ecosystem (Punahou International University). It is generalized that the use of

immersive technologies in the educational space of universities of the world is used not only in the process of

professional training for various sectors of the economy to gain professional competencies, but also to gain

social, emotional experience and to actualize environmental issues.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2111-5275

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2880-6826

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4253-5954

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4836-8280

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8746-3515

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0132-8361

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2241-0436

1 INTRODUCTION

Educational systems around the world are under in-

creasing pressure from society to introduce new infor-

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0733-1120

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5450-6635

264

Binytska, K., Bilyakovska, O., Yankovych, O., Buchkivska, G., Binytska, O., Greskova, V., Ocheretna, I., Burov, O. and Lytvynova, S.

Implicit Potential of Immersive Technologies Implementation in the Educational Process at the Universities: World Experience.

DOI: 10.5220/0010930700003364

In Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology (AET 2020) - Volume 2, pages 264-274

ISBN: 978-989-758-558-6

mation and communication technologies into the edu-

cational process to teach students the knowledge and

skills they need in the 21st century. This involves the

transformation of the educational process and the in-

troduction of new learning technologies (Khvilon and

Patru, 2002, p. 3). Education is the basis for sustain-

able development of society, so research and teach-

ing staff are constantly looking for opportunities to

improve the quality of education. In the age of digi-

tal technologies, one of the effective ways to improve

the quality of education and the learning process is

the use of computer technologies. Therefore, in our

opinion, the use of immersive teaching methods is a

natural next step in the evolution of education.

Problems of using immersive learning technolo-

gies are highlighted in (Babkin et al., 2021; Ko-

valchuk et al., 2020; Mintii and Soloviev, 2018; Shep-

iliev et al., 2021; Trach, 2017). In their scientiﬁc re-

searches, AR & VR technologies as a method and

means of teaching, as well as the features of the use

of immersive technologies in the system of medical

education have been studied.

In (Bakin, 2020; Lukashin, 2019; Kornilov and

Popov, 2018) the interpretation of basic concepts has

been done, some aspects of the theory and methods of

using VR technology in the educational process have

been shown, the features of the use of immersive tech-

nologies as a factor of educational development have

been studied.

The questions of peculiarities of the use of im-

mersive technologies have been studied by Khvilon

and Patru (Khvilon and Patru, 2002) in order to

study information and communication technologies

in teacher training, by Bockholt (Bockholt, 2017) to

determine the essence and features of virtual reality

(VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR).

Biggs (Biggs, 2018) focuses on using the potential

of VR technology to help memorize learning mate-

rial. Calvert and Abadia (Calvert and Abadia, 2020)

investigated the inﬂuence of immersion of university

students and high school students in educational nar-

ratives using virtual reality technologies.

Analysis has shown that in some scientiﬁc re-

searches (e.g., (Kamal et al., 2019)) the issue of the

use of immersive technologies is studied on the ex-

ample of universities: University of British Columbia,

Central Paciﬁc Institute in Hawaii, Punahou Interna-

tional University, Malaysian universities. It should

be noted that these and similar studies have not yet

covered the experience of using immersive learning

technologies in the educational space of the univer-

sity, taking into account the positive world experi-

ence. Unfortunately, there is no scientiﬁc research

on the use of immersive learning technologies in the

training of specialists in university through the prism

of such a pedagogical ﬁeld as comparative pedagogy.

The aim of the article is to analyse the theoreti-

cal aspects and practice of implementing immersive

technologies in universities of the world.

Taking into account the complexity of the study

of the state and prospects of development of the use

of immersive technologies in the universities of the

world in the context of our study requires addressing

the following issues: forms, methods and means of

using immersive technologies in leading countries of

the world; analysis of positive and negative experi-

ences in the implementation of immersive technolo-

gies of teaching students in the world’s leading uni-

versities.

2 METHODS

Interrelated and complementary research methods

have been used to achieve the aim of the scientiﬁc

intelligence. Thus, to collect scientiﬁc material in

the article the method of studying scientiﬁc sources,

analysis of the results of surveys conducted by in-

ternational companies has been used. In particular,

a survey conducted by the global law ﬁrm Perkins

Coie LLP and XR Association in 2019, which iden-

tiﬁed speciﬁc areas of use of immersive learning

technologies in the training of professionals in the

world’s leading universities (www.perkinscoie.com,

2019). The results of the survey conducted by the

company Sony in July 2019 on the use of video

in higher education institutions were studied (Rud-

dock, 2019). The results of this survey give us the

idea of how video is currently used in the educa-

tional space of universities, and what the use of video

in the educational process may look like in the fu-

ture; questionnaires and surveys conducted among

researchers and students of Lviv Ivan Franko Uni-

versity, Volodymyr Hnatiuk Ternopil National Peda-

gogical University and Khmelnytskyi Humanitarian-

Pedagogical Academy allowed to determine that re-

spondents are familiar with virtual and augmented re-

ality technologies in the context of their use for enter-

tainment, games, but a clear deﬁnition of what is im-

mersive learning technology could give only research

and teaching staff, students answered that they do not

know how to deﬁne such a concept, or difﬁcult to an-

swer; special linguistic methods allowed to make cor-

rect editing and translation of information from En-

glish.

Implicit Potential of Immersive Technologies Implementation in the Educational Process at the Universities: World Experience

265

3 RESULTS

The introduction of new innovative technologies in

the educational process of universities is an integral

part of improving the quality of education around the

world. In connection with the global pandemic, al-

though distance learning has been introduced in uni-

versities (Bobyliev and Vihrova, 2021), teaching is

carried out mainly by traditional methods, which in-

clude providing material in the form of text doc-

uments, its processing by students and testing of

knowledge (Kovalchuk et al., 2020, p. 159). There-

fore, in this research we will summarize the world ex-

perience of using immersive learning technologies in

the educational space of universities.

Let’s consider the problem of development of im-

mersive technologies. The idea of creating a virtual

world originated in the 1930s and belongs to Stanley

Grauman Weinbaum, who described a similar world

in the story “Pygmalion’s Spectacles” (Weinbaum,

1935). It was then that VR technologies began to de-

velop, but due to technical limitations and high costs

of ample opportunities, they were not actively intro-

duced (Bakin, 2020, p. 17).

With the development of immersive technologies,

educational processes become more complex and a

grainy picture of reality emerges. There is a whole

spectrum where the digital and real worlds are mixed

and mixed reality is used, which is becoming increas-

ingly important (Bonasio, 2019, p. 2).

A new impetus for the development of immersive

technologies occurred in 2014, when Facebook ac-

quired the startup Oculus VR – a pioneer of digital

technology. An updated model of the virtual reality

helmet was released, which caused a real sensation

in the technology market. Nowadays, VR is gain-

ing momentum and refers to the so-called immersive

technologies – the generalized name of all technolo-

gies that include human interaction with space, infor-

mation, content. They blur the boundaries between

real and ﬁctional worlds, allow to interact and im-

merse oneself in information and information product

(Glazkova, 2019).

According to a survey conducted by the global

law ﬁrm Perkins Coie LLP and the XR Associa-

tion in 2019, by 2025, immersive technologies, in-

cluding augmented reality, will be as necessary as

mobile phones. This is the opinion of almost 9

out of 10 respondents who took part in the survey

(www.perkinscoie.com, 2019, p. 2).

The use of immersive learning technologies in

the educational space of higher education institutions

provide the effect of full or partial presence in the al-

ternative space and thus change the user experience in

different ﬁelds and in different specialties.

The components of immersive learning technolo-

gies are virtual and augmented reality technologies,

as well as 360

◦

video. In our research it is necessary

to clarify the meaning of immersive technologies and

to show the difference between virtual and augmented

reality technologies.

We are going to consider in more detail what lies

behind the basic concepts of our research. Virtual re-

ality is often used to denote an experience that com-

pletely immerses the user in the environment created

by the computer, and largely “disables” his or her

physical environment. Augmented reality, contrary,

imposes digital elements on real objects and back-

grounds.

Virtual reality is an ideal educational environment.

Perception of the virtual model with a high degree

of reliability allows to qualitatively and quickly train

professionals in various specialties: aviation, process

control, medicine, remote control of technical means

and more. Over the last decade, virtual reality has

become a leading technological trend in the develop-

ment of educational technologies. This is due to the

powerful investments of technology companies that

improve VR systems, while increasing consumer ac-

cess and interest in these technologies (Renganaya-

galu et al., 2021). Professional reality training allows

to visually conduct lectures and seminars, workshops,

demonstrate to learners all aspects of the real object

or process, which in general gives a huge effect, im-

proves the quality and speed of educational processes

and reduces their cost (Trach, 2017, p. 313).

This is, ﬁrst of all, visual and sound content, sound

in this case of key importance – it complements the

virtuality and creates the effect of presence in an un-

real location by simulating the reﬂection and direc-

tions of sound waves. One can get into alternative,

virtual reality, for example, wearing special glasses,

dividing the picture in front of the eyes into two parts,

they create a stereoscopic effect. In the presence

of tracking for body positions, the virtual space will

also take into account the movements of the head and

torso.

There are other ways to get into virtual reality: a

smartphone with a special VR application, tracking

systems, special gloves, mobile VR helmets and more

(Lukashin, 2019; Bockholt, 2017). We are going to

consider them in more detail.

Smartphone with a special VR application, which

is inserted into the case with lenses – Google Card-

board.

Tracking systems allow moving the user into the

virtual space, and the costumes that convey feelings

from virtual reality are also being worked out.

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

266

Figure 1: “Pygmalion’s Spectacles” by Stanley G. Weinbaum (illustrated by Virgil Finlay).

Implicit Potential of Immersive Technologies Implementation in the Educational Process at the Universities: World Experience

267

Special gloves instead of the usual joystick, so that

human hands naturally interact with the virtual world.

Mobile VR helmets with built-in monitors (HTC

Vive, Oculus Go and others), optimized devices with

high-quality graphics, integrated sound and joystick

for control.

Standalone VR helmets (like Oculus Rift), graph-

ics to which are transmitted via wires from a gaming

computer with a powerful video card, communication

with a PC creates restrictions on use, but VR helmets

have better graphics and more potential purposes for

users.

Trekking cameras capture the position of the joy-

stick and the position of the person, immersing him or

her in virtual reality more realistically, complete with

helmets are controllers.

Augmented reality is the result of entering into the

ﬁeld of perception of any sensory data in order to sup-

plement them about the environment and improve the

perception of information.

The term “augmented reality” was proposed by

company Boeing researchers (Tom Caudell) in 1990

(Caudell and Mizell, 1992). The concept of 1994 by

Milgram and Kishino (Milgram and Kishino, 1994)

deﬁnes augmented reality as part of a mixed reality,

also called a hybrid reality. But since 2016, Microsoft

has been actively using the term “mixed reality” to

market its HoloLens product. And now some experts

(and equipment suppliers) deﬁne the terms as follows:

Augmented Reality – projecting any digital infor-

mation (images, videos, text, graphics, etc.) on top of

the screen of any device. As a result, the real world

is supplemented by artiﬁcial elements and new in-

formation. It can be implemented using applications

for ordinary smartphones and tablets, augmented real-

ity glasses, stationary screens, projection devices and

other technologies (www.it.ua, 2018).

Augmented Reality technologies can create digi-

tal information (images, videos, text, graphics) on de-

vice screens and combine virtual objects with the real

environment. For example, the game Pokemon GO

is a prime example of AR technology (pokemongo-

live.com, 2021).

Panoramic and 360° photos or videos. These are

sequential sets of pictures sewn by means of algo-

rithms, it is possible to make them both by one cam-

era, and special 360° cameras. Cameras which take

pictures of surrounding space then the received videos

are sewn up in special programs. There are also seam-

less solutions, but they are more expensive, some-

times additional graphics are added to the ﬁnished

video. Nowadays, “panoramic” online broadcasts are

also common, when you have several points with a

panoramic view, which give the viewer the opportu-

nity to “be present in the moment” (Lukashin, 2019).

Virtual reality, using a 360-degree image, carries

a person into the artiﬁcial world, where the environ-

ment is completely changed. We can get acquainted

with augmented reality only with the help of a smart-

phone, but to dive into the virtual space you need to

have a special helmet or goggles.

Thus, the use of immersive learning technologies

today can become an effective tool in learning and

revolutionize the training of the future professionals

(Deep South magazine, 2020).

The use of immersive learning technologies in

higher education involves taking into account a num-

ber of key points on which the principle of visualiza-

tion in education is implemented. Thus, this princi-

ple does not deny, but on the contrary expands and

complements the acquired knowledge, taking into ac-

count current trends in the development of modern in-

formation and communication educational technolo-

gies and scientiﬁc-technological progress. Immer-

sive technologies in education enhance the impor-

tance of visualization in the process of learning due

to deep immersion in the virtual environment, the role

of which is very important – enriching students with

complex sensory cognitive experience necessary to

master abstract concepts. The human sensory system

as the ﬁrst degree of cognition must be strengthened

through deeper immersion, the impact on the senses,

which contributes to the acquisition of knowledge in

the form of concepts, rules, laws, which are laid down

at the next stage. Providing knowledge with objec-

tively existing reality should continuously accompany

the learning process based on feelings. To increase the

effectiveness of learning, the principle of immersion

requires, above all, the use of immersion tools, based

on visual modality. The principle of complexity in the

immersive approach involves the impact on all human

senses to the perception of educational material.

The effectiveness of the principle of visualization

in the use of immersive technologies is conﬁrmed by

the fact that of the ﬁve organs of human perception

today it is possible to use three – sight, hearing, touch.

Let us consider the experience of using immersive

learning technologies in the world’s leading universi-

ties. Interesting for our research is a survey conducted

by the company Sony in July 2019 on the use of video

in higher education institutions (Ruddock, 2019). In

total, the survey was conducted in 13 European coun-

tries, in which 123 educators took part. The study

showed that the demand for virtual reality is growing

today, and several respondents stressed on the beneﬁts

of using VR in education: with AR/VR, the potential

is further enhanced by the ability to create more inter-

active and autonomous learning systems. VR allows

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

268

Figure 2: Components of immersive learning technologies.

teachers to create interesting life and interesting learn-

ing experiences when students can interact with 3D

objects and environments. Students can take virtual

tours of artists’ exhibitions, explore space or explore

the internal organs of a human (Ruddock, 2019).

Today, VR is actively used in the health care

training system to provide medical students with an

overview of surgical procedures with their own eyes

without being in the operating room. Teachers can

simulate the situation and ask students to perform ex-

ercises that they could not safely perform in reality,

or interact with artifacts that would not otherwise be

available.

The researches have shown that in a socio-

constructivist approach to learning, the most effective

educational activity is the experience gained, which

involves the acquisition of authentic knowledge in the

context of a personally realistic situation. Therefore,

the use of immersive technologies is particularly suit-

able for providing practical experience. Modeling al-

lows students not only to reproduce and practice rou-

tine situations, but also to have access to experiences

that would be unattainable – due to difﬁculties, costs,

dangers or simply the impossibility of obtaining it in

the real educational process. However, their effective-

ness depends on the ability to create an environment

where the learner feels truly immersed in the environ-

ment and the story, going through the real experience.

The positive side of using immersive learning

technologies in the process of training the future pro-

fessionals at the university is to make the learning pro-

cess exciting and more efﬁcient.

The use of immersive learning technologies pro-

vides a deep understanding of the material by the stu-

dent with the possibility of its further application in

real life (teach.its.uiowa.edu, 2016).

Immersive learning technologies should be used

to attract the intellectual abilities of students to a more

effective learning process. They provide a safe and re-

alistic environment for involving students in learning

and practice, where they learn these methods and use

them effectively in the training of the future profes-

sionals in various ﬁelds. For example, in the train-

ing of the future archaeologists to perform work on

archaeological excavations; in the training of the fu-

ture pilots, to guide the landing of aircraft on the air-

craft carrier or in the training of the future doctors for

surgery. The advantage of using these methods is that

the computer system can track the progress of student

learning and report any errors (teach.its.uiowa.edu,

2016).

Researchers at the University of Maryland have

found that people remember information better when

it is presented in VR than a two-dimensional personal

computer. It means that VR education is more effec-

tive than learning with the use of tablets or comput-

ers. Researchers at the university conducted a study

in which they asked two groups of people to remem-

Implicit Potential of Immersive Technologies Implementation in the Educational Process at the Universities: World Experience

269

ber the location of certain images. During the exper-

iment, one of the groups used virtual reality helmets,

the other – ordinary computers. The group that stud-

ied the image with VR helmets showed a result 10 %

higher than the participants of the other group (Biggs,

2018).

Universities and colleges have always been at the

forefront of introducing new technologies, driving

progress and training the next generation of scientists,

developers and entrepreneurs (www.classvr.com,

2020). Therefore, let’s consider the experience of us-

ing immersive learning technologies on speciﬁc ex-

amples.

During the global pandemic, immersive learn-

ing technologies are actively used in distance learn-

ing in the world’s leading universities, which allows,

in particular during video conferencing to improve

the effectiveness of learning. For example, profes-

sors at the University of British Columbia are al-

ready lecturing using immersive teaching methods

(www.classvr.com, 2020).

For example, at the Central Paciﬁc Institute in

Hawaii, students who spent a few minutes using im-

mersive technology for social education regarding the

prospects of a homeless person noticed how they re-

alized how easily they could ﬁnd themselves in the

same situation. “Becoming Homeless” is a project de-

veloped by Stanford University’s Virtual Human In-

teraction Laboratory (VHIL) to determine the level

of empathy for the problem of homelessness, but de-

spite the feelings of discomfort and inconvenience re-

ceived by students’ own practical experience. Stu-

dents and teachers usually report the consequences

of the project implementation as “positive” (Bonasio,

2019, p. 7).

Another VHIL project that demonstrated the ef-

fects of ocean oxidation on coral reefs was conducted

at Punahou International University.

So after the application of immersive technolo-

gies, in particular, using elements of the game, stu-

dents gained some interactive experience. They ran

their hands through bubbles coming out of coral reefs,

causing students to have negative emotions about the

environmental problem. The students noted that they

are very disappointed that human activities can harm

a beautiful and pristine ecosystem (Bonasio, 2019,

p. 7).

Thus, analysing the world experience of imple-

menting immersive technologies in the educational

space of universities, we can identify the positive as-

pects of their use:

• Visualization. In the virtual space, a person

can view any process or object in detail with-

out obstacles. For example, for medical stu-

dents through the application Anatomyuo (anato-

myou.com, 2021) (3D application that teaches hu-

man anatomy for minimally invasive procedures,

a person can study the structure of the body in

the smallest detail), and for students of natural

sciences it is advisable to offer the application

Operation Apex (store.steampowered.com, 2017)

which can demonstrate with the help of the adven-

ture game all the riches of the underwater world.

It is worth noting that the demand for exciting and

interactive experiences continues to grow not only

in the sphere of education but also in other areas.

• Concentration and effectiveness. Concentration is

focusing on educational material. In the virtual

environment, students are not distracted by exter-

nal irritants.

• Effectiveness. Students who have used virtual

reality technologies to study the learning mate-

rial show better learning outcomes. Thus, Wu

et al. (Wu et al., 2020) during an experimen-

tal study conﬁrmed the effectiveness of the use

of virtual technologies to improve student learn-

ing outcomes. Scientists conclude that immer-

sive learning technologies can improve both stu-

dents’ knowledge and develop practical skills by

supporting the effect of “real-time learning” (Wu

et al., 2020).

• Maximum involvement. Immersive technologies

provide the ability to fully control and change

the scenario of events. Students at history fac-

ulties can witness historical events, students at

physics and chemistry faculties can conduct their

own physics or chemistry experiments, and math

students can solve a problem in a playful and un-

derstandable form. Art students can attend a vir-

tual tour, exhibition or concert.

However, it should be noted that research and

teaching staff are increasingly choosing the means

of immersive learning technologies due to the po-

tential pedagogical beneﬁts. Immersive technolo-

gies, when used correctly and strategically, can

provide a basis for increasing student engage-

ment, immersion, interaction, enjoyment, and

thorough deeper learning process. However, due

to the development of understanding of the poten-

tial of immersive technologies teachers should be-

gin to develop the quality content of education,

rather than using technology as a fashion trend or

end in itself (www.monash.edu, 2021).

• Security. With the help of immersive technolo-

gies a person can work as a lifeguard in a ﬁre, for

architects, engineers for computer simulation of

any complex project, to conduct a complex opera-

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

270

tion, control military equipment, space shuttle, to

conduct an experiment with hazardous chemicals

without harming oneself or environment.

• Reducing the ﬁnancial costs of training tools in

training specialists, because software or virtual

training tools are cheaper than real machines and

equipment used in training the future profession-

als (using a smartphone or tablet a person can get

a virtual endoscope, tomograph, model airplane,

tank etc. (Kovalchuk et al., 2020; osvitoria.media,

2019).

Immersive technologies play the important role

in educating students with special educational needs.

After all, with the help of immersive technologies,

one can create an inclusive learning environment, tak-

ing into account the needs and capabilities of each.

This can be one of the important steps in democratiz-

ing knowledge.

By studying the experience of using immersive

technologies in the world’s leading universities, we

can determine how they can affect the results of train-

ing of the future professionals – for example, reduced

cognitive knowledge, brain load, allowing to gain real

experience through the visualization of complex ideas

and structures. This not only dramatically increases

the involvement of students, but also allows students

to absorb complex information more effectively and

retain it longer. Perhaps most importantly is the fact

that this is achieved in the holistic context that signif-

icantly increases the transfer rate (i.e. the ability to

successfully adapt and apply what is learned in differ-

ent real-life scenarios) (Bonasio, 2019, p. 2).

At the same time, with all the positive aspects of

their use in the educational space of higher education

institutions, their capabilities should not be overes-

timated. After all, immersive learning technologies

cannot completely replace a highly qualiﬁed teacher

in the educational institution. For example, a team of

scientists studying the problem of implementing im-

mersive and interactive educational technologies (Ed-

ucation 5.0 and Industry 4.0) in Malaysian univer-

sities identiﬁed the following disadvantages of their

use: insufﬁcient logistical infrastructure and high ﬁ-

nancial costs for the development of the content (Ka-

mal et al., 2019).

Today, scientists often note a negative trend, when

the use of information technology has priority over

the traditional educational process, i.e. educational

decisions are implemented without proper consider-

ation and study of the pedagogical context in which

they will be applied. This can be seen in education in

particular, where success is invariably associated with

the effective interaction of the student with the teacher

and building feedback with the student, which gives

priority to the learning outcome.

4 DISCUSSION

We studied the problems of implementation of im-

mersive technologies in higher education institutions

of Ukraine. In order to determine the level of

awareness of students and research-teaching staff of

Ukrainian educational institutions with the use of im-

mersive learning technologies, we conducted anony-

mous survey at Lviv Ivan Franko National University,

Volodymyr Hnatiuk Ternopil National Pedagogical

University, Khmelnytskyi Humanitarian-Pedagogical

Academy. Teachers and students (a total of 112 peo-

ple) were asked a number of questions. The list of

questions and answers are given in table 1.

Let us analyze the answers of respondents. To

the question: “Do you use virtual or augmented real-

ity technologies in your classes?” 75 respondents said

they had never used it, 37 respondents said they had

used augmented reality technology and only 2 said

they had “written augmented reality software”.

To the question “Do you know that today a per-

son can plunge into virtual reality even with a regular

smartphone?” 102 people said yes, but there was also

the answer: “And yesterday a person could plunge

into virtual reality with the help of an ordinary book”.

To the question “Do you know which virtual or

augmented reality technologies are supported in other

higher education institutions?” only 30 respondents

answered yes and only 1 respondent stated that such

technologies are used in Tech StartUp School of Lviv

Polytechnic.

During the survey, 64 respondents (all students)

answered that they like to use a smartphone, tablet,

augmented reality glasses for games. However, only

56 respondents answered that they visited museum

exhibitions, art galleries, and virtual reality concerts,

as there were no other options in 2020.

It is interesting that 108 respondents who took part

in the survey said that they actively use computers,

tablets, smartphones and other gadgets, which im-

prove the quality of education, while 6 people stated

that they do not use any technical teaching aids during

their classes.

Based on the analysis of the answers to the ques-

tion “Are you familiar with the term “immersive tech-

nology”? What do you think it is?” we concluded that

the essence of this word is clear to 100 % of teach-

ers, but a small percentage of students. However, in

individual conversations we found that teachers and

students are interested in learning more about the fea-

tures of the use of immersive technologies and there

Implicit Potential of Immersive Technologies Implementation in the Educational Process at the Universities: World Experience

271

Table 1: The results of a survey of teachers and students.

Question The number of posi-

tive responses / % of

the total quantity

The number of nega-

tive responses / % of

the total quantity

Note

1. Are you familiar with the term “im-

mersive technology”? What do you

think it is?

35 / 48.2 % 54 / 47.4 % 5 / 4.4 % answered

inaccurately, incom-

pletely

2. Do you use virtual or augmented re-

ality technologies in your classes?

37 / 32.4 % 75 / 65.8 % 2 / 1.8 % respon-

dents answered that

they wrote software

for AR

3. Do you know which virtual or aug-

mented reality technologies are sup-

ported in other higher education insti-

tutions?

30 / 26.3 % 84 / 73.3 %

4. How do you use computers, tablets,

smartphones and other gadgets in your

classes?

108 / 94.7 % 6 / 5.3 % All interviewed teach-

ers answered that they

actively use gadgets

for distance learning

5. In your opinion, is it possible to

safely gain practical experience with

the help of virtual and augmented real-

ity technologies?

92 / 80.7 % 18 / 15.8 % 4 / 3.5 % of the re-

spondents found it dif-

ﬁcult to answer, 2 an-

swered “maybe”

6. Do you know that today a person can

plunge into virtual reality even with a

regular smartphone?

102 / 89.5 % 12 / 10.5 %

7. Have you visited museum exhibi-

tions, an art gallery, a concert in virtual

reality?

56 / 49.1 % 58 / 50.9 %

8. Have you used a smartphone, tablet,

augmented reality glasses for games?

64 / 56.1 % 50 / 43.9 %

is a need for a deeper critical analysis of the use of

immersive technologies in the educational process of

higher education on the example of other universities.

Thus, having analyzed the answers, in particular

a large number of negative answers to the ﬁrst, sec-

ond, third and sixth questions, we consider a promis-

ing area of improving the educational process of

Ukrainian universities, studying world experience of

using immersive learning technologies for their im-

plementation in the future, creating opportunities for

digital learning.

During the research in order to determine the

level of awareness of students and research-teaching

staff of national educational institutions on the use

of immersive learning technologies, we conducted

the anonymous survey at Lviv Ivan Franko National

University, Volodymyr Hnatiuk Ternopil National

Pedagogical University, Khmelnytskyi Humanitarian-

Pedagogical Academy. After analyzing the answers

of research-teaching staff and students, we came to

the conclusion that today a promising area for improv-

ing the educational process in Ukrainian universities

is to study world experience in the use of immersive

learning technologies for their implementation in the

future.

5 CONCLUSIONS AND

PROSPECTS OF FURTHER

RESEARCH

In the process of studying the problem of the use of

immersive technologies in the educational space of

universities, we have generalized that such technolo-

gies are used in the training of the future archaeolo-

gists to perform work on archaeological excavations;

for architects, engineers for computer modeling of

any of the most complex projects, in the training of

the future pilots to guide the landing of aircraft on the

aircraft carrier; to prepare rescuers to put out ﬁres and

rescue people; in the training of the future physicians

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

272

for surgery or for experiments with hazardous chemi-

cals. Immersive technologies play the important role

in educating students with special educational needs

to create inclusive learning environment taking into

account the needs and capabilities of each.

Having analyzed the world experience of using

immersive technologies in universities around the

world, we found that these technologies are used in

quite unexpected ways:

• immersive learning technologies are actively used

during distance learning, which allows, in particu-

lar during video conferencing to improve learning

efﬁciency (University of British Columbia);

• to determine the level of empathy for the prob-

lem of homelessness, which allows to obtain the

social experience of a person who becomes home-

less (Central Paciﬁc Institute in Hawaii);

• to study the effects of ocean oxidation on coral

reefs, to provide knowledge about the environ-

mental problem, so that the students understand

the damage to nature caused by human activities

(Punahou International University).

Thus, the use of immersive technologies in the ed-

ucational space of universities is applied not only in

the process of training specialists for various sectors

of the economy to obtain professional competencies,

but also to gain social, emotional experience and to

update environmental issues.

Our research does not outline all aspects of the

problem of using immersive learning technologies in

the educational space of the world’s leading univer-

sities. These and other problems today are the most

promising area of scientiﬁc pedagogical thought, and

can project the further introduction of immersive tech-

nologies in the educational space of national higher

education institutions, taking into account the positive

experience of universities.

REFERENCES

anatomyou.com (2021). Anatomyou VR.

https://anatomyou.com/en/.

Babkin, V. V., Sharavara, V. V., Sharavara, V. V., Bilous,

V. V., Voznyak, A. V., and Kharchenko, S. Y. (2021).

Using augmented reality in university education for

future IT specialists: educational process and stu-

dent research work. CEUR Workshop Proceedings,

2898:255–268.

Bakin, M. V. (2020). Immersive technologies in the de-

velopment of social empathy and education. Inter-

national Scientiﬁc-Research Journal, (10 (100), part

2):16–20.

Biggs, J. (2018). VR helps us remember. https://techcrunch.

com/2018/06/14/vr-helps-us-remember/.

Bobyliev, D. Y. and Vihrova, E. V. (2021). Problems and

prospects of distance learning in teaching fundamental

subjects to future mathematics teachers. Journal of

Physics: Conference Series, 1840(1):012002.

Bockholt, N. (2017). VR, AR, MR and

What Does Immersion Actually Mean?

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-cee/future-

of-marketing/machine-learning/vr-ar-mr-and-what-

does-immersion-actually-mean/.

Bonasio, A. (2019). Immersive experiences in ed-

ucation: New places and spaces for learning.

http://edudownloads.azureedge.net/msdownloads/

MicrosoftEducation

Immersive Experiences

Education 2019.pdf.

Calvert, J. and Abadia, R. (2020). Impact of immersing uni-

versity and high school students in educational linear

narratives using virtual reality technology. Computers

& Education, 159:104005.

Caudell, T. and Mizell, D. (1992). Augmented reality: An

application of heads-up display technology to man-

ual manufacturing processes. In Proceedings of the

Twenty-Fifth Hawaii International Conference on Sys-

tem Sciences, volume 2, pages 659–669.

Deep South magazine (2020). Immersive teaching meth-

ods: Virtual and augmented reality tools in education.

https://deepsouthmag.com/2020/04/14/immersive-

teaching-methods-virtual-and-augmented-reality-

tools-in-education/.

Glazkova, M. (2019). Immersive technologies in educa-

tion and arts: how the virtual world becomes real.

https://cocodobrando.com/vr.

Kamal, N. N. M., Adnan, A. H. M., Yusof, A. A., Ahmad,

M. K., and Kamal, M. A. M. (2019). Immersive

Interactive Educational Experiences – Adopting

Education 5.0, Industry 4.0 Learning Technolo-

gies for Malaysian Universities. In Proceedings:

International Invention, Innovative & Creative

(InIIC) Conference, pages 190–196. MNNF Pub-

lisher. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/

334823709 Immersive Interactive Educational

Experiences - adopting Education 50 Industry 40

learning technologies for Malaysian universities.

Khvilon, E. and Patru, M. (2002). Infor-

mation and communication technologies

in teacher education: A planning guide.

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-

and-information/resources/publications-and-

communication-materials/publications/full-

list/information-and-communication-technologies-in-

teacher-education-a-planning-guide/.

Kornilov, Y. V. and Popov, A. A. (2018). VR technologies in

education: experience, review of tools and application

prospects. Innovations in education, (8):117–129.

Kovalchuk, O. I., Bondarenko, M. P., Okhrey, A. G., Pry-

bytko, I. Y., and Reshetnyk, E. M. (2020). Fea-

tures of using immersive technologies (virtual and au-

gumented reality) in medical education and practice.

Morphologia, 14(3):158–164.

Implicit Potential of Immersive Technologies Implementation in the Educational Process at the Universities: World Experience

273

Lukashin, S. (2019). Where immersive technologies

are taking us. https://habr.com/ru/company/vtb/blog/

463707/.

Milgram, P. and Kishino, F. (1994). A taxonomy of mixed

reality visual displays. IEICE Transactions on Infor-

mation and Systems, 77(12):1321–1329.

Mintii, I. S. and Soloviev, V. N. (2018). Augmented real-

ity: Ukrainian present business and future education.

CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 2257:227–231.

osvitoria.media (2019). Virtual and augmented re-

ality: how new technologies inspire learning.

https://osvitoria.media/opinions/virtualna-ta-

dopovnena-realnist-yakoyu-mozhe-buty-suchasna-

osvita/.

pokemongolive.com (2021). Pokemon GO.

https://pokemongolive.com/en/.

Renganayagalu, S. k., Mallam, S. C., and Nazir, S. (2021).

Effectiveness of vr head mounted displays in profes-

sional training: A systematic review. Technology,

Knowledge and Learning.

Ruddock, J. (2019). Sony research reveals power

of video in higher ed. https://www.installation-

international.com/business/sony-research-reveals-

power-of-video-in-higher-ed.

Shepiliev, D. S., Semerikov, S. O., Yechkalo, Y. V.,

Tkachuk, V. V., Markova, O. M., Modlo, Y. O., Mintii,

I. S., Mintii, M. M., Selivanova, T. V., Maksyshko,

N. K., Vakaliuk, T. A., Osadchyi, V. V., Tarasenko,

R. O., Amelina, S. M., and Kiv, A. E. (2021). Devel-

opment of career guidance quests using WebAR. Jour-

nal of Physics: Conference Series, 1840(1):012028.

store.steampowered.com (2017). Shark Week: Operation

Apex. https://store.steampowered.com/app/728070/

Shark Week Operation Apex/.

teach.its.uiowa.edu (2016). Virtual immersive teach-

ing and learning. https://teach.its.uiowa.edu/

virtual-immersive-teaching-and-learning.

Trach, Y. (2017). VR-technology as a method and

means of training. Educological discourse, page

309–322. https://od.kubg.edu.ua/index.php/journal/

article/view/444.

Weinbaum, S. G. (1935). Pygmalion’s spectacles. Wonder

Stories, (6). https://www.gutenberg.org/ﬁles/22893/

22893-h/22893-h.htm.

Wu, B., Yu, X., and Gu, X. (2020). Effectiveness of im-

mersive virtual reality using head-mounted displays

on learning performance: A meta-analysis. British

Journal of Educational Technology, 51(6):1991–

2005. https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/

doi/abs/10.1111/bjet.13023.

www.classvr.com (2020). Virtual Reality in Education: En-

gaging VR and AR educational content for students

of all ages. https://www.classvr.com/virtual-reality-

in-education/.

www.it.ua (2018). Dopovnena realnist (AR): tekhnolo-

hii, prystroi, ﬁnansovi perspektyvy (Augmented

reality (AR): technologies, devices, ﬁnancial

prospects). https://www.it.ua/knowledge-base/

technology-innovation/dopolnennaja-realnost-ar.

www.monash.edu (2021). Introducing immer-

sive technologies. https://www.monash.

edu/learning-teaching/teaching-resources/

mea-modules-r/introducing-immersive-technologies.

www.perkinscoie.com (2019). 2019 Augmented

and virtual reality survey report. Industry in-

sights into the future of immersive technology.

https://www.perkinscoie.com/images/content/2/1/v4/

218679/2019-VR-AR-Survey-Digital-v1.pdf.

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

274