Thread by @instructlady

I’m studying immersive virtual reality and instructional design. Here’s what I learned from Makransky and Petersen’s (2021) paper entitled The cognitive-affective model of immersive learning (CAMIL). #instructionaldesign bit.ly/3HUMMPr
- A thread -

This is an attempt to communicate science on Twitter using threads. #sciencecommunication 🤓

When it comes to immersive virtual reality (IVR) and learning, the CAMIL theory identifies specific affordances of learning in immersive virtual environments. CAMIL stands for Cognitive Affective Model of Immersive Learning (CAMIL).

In consideration of past research done on motivation and learning, evidence from those previous studies with less immersive media generalize to learning in IVR.

“CAMIL provides a theory...that describes how it is not the medium of IVR that causes more or less learning but rather that the instructional method used in an IVR lesson will be specifically effective if it facilitates the unique affordances of the medium.”

Presence and agency are the general affordances of learning in IVR. Presence is the feeling of “being there” and agency is the feeling of “generating and controlling actions”.

Presence and agency influence interest, intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, embodiment, cognitive load, and self-regulation.

Interest - IVR provides an ideal way of triggering and maintaining situational interest which may develop into an individual interest.

Intrinsic motivation - Higher presence in IVR is associated with higher motivation and enjoyment and thereby more perceived learning. Agency affects the level of intrinsic motivation felt by the learner during immersive learning experiences.

Self-efficacy - The perceived capability for learning or performing actions is self-efficacy. A high sense of presence and agency allows learners to experience learning as performance accomplishments. They perceive the IVR as “real” and feel like they are in control.

Embodiment - The experience of owning a virtual body. An embodiment can be influenced by the external appearance of the body and the ability to control the actions of the body (agency) and the possibility to feel the sensorial events directed to the body.

Cognitive load - Learning in IVR leads to higher extraneous CL than learning in less immersive media. Cognitive load is a specifically important component of understanding the learning process when learning in IVR.

Self-regulation - Introducing reflection activities that prompt metacognition and deeper learning within, or after, IVR is critical. IVR can potentially facilitate self-regulation for learners with peer avatars or pedagogical agents.

Using IVR is not necessarily an ideal medium for factual knowledge or conceptual knowledge acquisition. The exact methods that induce effective learning of factual and conceptual knowledge depend on the instructional design of the IVR learning experience.

IVR is highly effective for gaining procedural knowledge and the transfer of learning to actual real-life situations can be enhanced through IVR.

Future research of learning in immersive virtual environments should seek to understand how the affordances of presence and agency interact with different instructional methods.

What are the Implications of Instructional Design based on CAMIL?
🔵Designers should emphasize
🔵Immersion
🔵Representational fidelity
🔵Control factors when developing IVR learning tools

What are the tradeoffs in the application of CAMIL? Let’s do a prefatory risk-costs-benefits analysis that I have abridged due to the scope of this thread. 🤓

Here are the presumed risks, or external factors that influence CAMIL:
🔵Usability
🔵Social factors
🔵Individual differences variables
Age
Tendency to experience cybersickness
Working memory
Personality
Predisposition towards absorption
Spatial ability

Costs. 💵💲What is the total utility of CAMIL? Explicit costs + implicit costs= total utility. Explicit costs consist of real costs in developing instructional designs based on CAMIL; direct costs and indirect costs with production.💵💲

Implicit costs are not easy to identify such as overhead costs and costs over time. ⌛️

Benefits - What are the explicit and implicit benefits of CAMIL? Explicit benefits can include reduced costs for learners.

Implicit benefits are more difficult to quantify. Learner satisfaction, increased access, higher retention rates, are some examples of CAMIL implicit benefits.

To understand the impact of CAMIL, an analysis should be done to understand the NET benefit or cost of its implementation. This can be done by calculating the return on investment (ROI).

In sum, it is important to note that the hype factor is in play with IVR. IDs have to look beyond this and emphasize the instructional support and learning processes that IVR offers. How did I do with this Twitter version of #sciencecommunication ❓