Learner-Centered Design of Sensorily Immersive Microworld Using a Virtual Reality Interface

At NASA’s Johnson Space Center and George Mason University, we are using a learnercentered approach for designing and evaluating ScienceSpace, a series of virtual reality microworlds for teaching science concepts and skills that students typically have difficulty mastering. Our research goal is to examine whether virtual reality’s sensorial immersion can help students remediate deeply rooted misconceptions and construct accurate mental models of abstract science concepts. Through the design and evaluation of the microworlds in ScienceSpace, we will more fully understand the general utility of sensorial immersion, as well as virtual reality’s overall potential and limitations for teaching. This paper focuses on the iterative design and evaluation of NewtonWorld, the first of the virtual microworlds in ScienceSpace. We highlight learner, educational content, and technology considerations important for designing these educational microworlds and explain how we used these factors in shaping NewtonWorld. Additionally, we describe formative user-based evaluations and surveys, and how their results helped us refine NewtonWorld’s interface. Finally, we discuss early implications of our work for designing sensorily immersive interfaces that are usable and facilitate