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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Virtual Real.
Sec. Virtual Reality and Human Behaviour
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frvir.2024.1423911
This article is part of the Research Topic Use of body and gaze in extended reality View all 3 articles

Comparison of Teleportation and Walking in Virtual Reality in a Declarative Learning Task

Provisionally accepted
Michael Rihs Michael Rihs 1,2*Rahel A. Steuri Rahel A. Steuri 1Sarah A. Aeschlimann Sarah A. Aeschlimann 1Fred W. Mast Fred W. Mast 1Martin Dobricki Martin Dobricki 2
  • 1 University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
  • 2 University of Teacher Education Bern, Bern, Bern, Switzerland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Virtual reality (VR) offers new possibilities for learning in educational settings by navigating through large 3D virtual environments. When designing VR-based learning applications, developers have to decide between different locomotion techniques to navigate through VR. Since physical activity and walking have been shown to enhance learning, physical walking in VR should increase learning compared to locomotion techniques without physical activity. In this study, we examined if learners who are able to walk freely in VR differ regarding their declarative knowledge acquisition from learners who are teleported in VR. Learning outcomes did not differ between these two conditions, neither immediately after learning in VR nor after a one-day delay. Also, participants' sense of presence in the virtual environment did not differ between the two conditions. These findings suggest that both teleportation and walking are suitable for declarative knowledge acquisition in VR, and that teleportation may be sufficient enough.

    Keywords: Walking, Teleportation, Learning, Education, physical activity, Knowledge acquisition, Immersion

    Received: 26 Apr 2024; Accepted: 29 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Rihs, Steuri, Aeschlimann, Mast and Dobricki. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Michael Rihs, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.