Many existing Virtual Reality (VR) applications in the Digital Cultural Heritage (DCH) domain are for education purposes. As educational VR DCH experiences become more prevalent, it becomes increasingly important to understand the user and learner experience of such installations. This work reports on a user study (n=30) evaluating three educational VR DCH experiences using three existing User experience (UX) evaluation methodologies from related fields and three learning evaluation methodologies. A total of 31 participants were recruited for the experiment, resulting in a dataset of 30 valid records. Our research seeks to explore the relationship between UX and Learning experience (LX), and their impact on learning in VR DCH experiences. Our results suggest that UX and LX in educational VR DCH experiences can influence certain aspects of learning, such as retention, concentration, motivation, and flexibility. Additionally, specific aspects of the educational VR DCH experience captured evidence by three existing UX evaluation and three learning evaluation methodologies are identified. These include instrumental aspects (ease of use, learnability, efficiency, etc.), stimulation of new experiences, the role of interactions, immersion in VR DCH contexts and flexibility of learning pace and using learning materials.

Research suggests that serious games can be used as supplementary training tools for young people with complex mental health needs. This study aimed to co-produce a mobile-accessible serious game, ReGoal, in collaboration with young people (11 – 16 years) and an interdisciplinary team of academic experts and practitioners. ReGoal is aimed to serve as a supplementary tool for improving emotion regulation, goal-orientation, and executive functioning skills. This study consisted of three interlinked co-production phases. First, 122 participants, of which 34% had moderate to high conduct problems, completed an online survey about the role of gaming in managing their emotions. During the second phase, 16 young people attended three focus groups in which their lived experiences shaped the narrative of ReGoal. In the third phase, an online user survey gathered feedback from 72 young people playing the most recent prototype of ReGoal. The key fi ndings suggest that young people valued playing ReGoal as a supplementary aid to improving their mood, increasing empathy towards peers and family, reducing anxiety, anger, and impulsivity, and understanding other people ’ s emotions. Future research should test the applicability and feasibility of ReGoal in reducing behavioural problems with clinical and non-clinical samples.

Museums are traditionally considered learning environments and are ordinarily used for non-formal education. Physical museums, while being irreplaceable, are limited to a physical space, requiring mobility and physical presence. In addition, traditional exhibitions are not designed for interaction and physical exploration of artefacts. With the focus being shifted from museum exhibits to visitors’ experience, utilization of emerging technologies and co-creation of virtual museums not only helps in preservation of cultural heritage, but enhances the dissemination, engagement, and experience, while addressing the mobility and the plurality of voices and perspectives represented. In this work, we designed and developed the School House Virtual Museum with tangible user interfaces based on participatory, interdisciplinary, and co-creative methods with students and a larger community of researchers, artists, and practitioners working on heritage and memory. In a user study with 62 participants, usability and user experience were explored and the potential contribution of such virtual museums to learning, based on critical, cross-disciplinary, and participatory dialogue, both in cultural and educational institutions/programs has been investigated. The results have confirmed that the system has been well designed and developed, and the user experience was largely positive. The responses from educators and students confirmed that the application holds potential as a learning and education tool in either museums, schools, or when used independently.

In this paper we present details of a virtual tour and game for VR headset that are designed to investigate an interactive and engaging approach of applying VR to student recruitment for an undergraduate course. The VR tour employs a floating menu to navigate through a set of 360° panoramic photographs of the teaching environment and uses hotspot interaction to display further information about the course. The VR game is a fast-paced shooting game. The course information is embedded on cubes that the player needs to focus on and destroy. The game experience is expected to generate an engaging way to promote the course. This work in progress outlines the concept and development of the prototype, and discusses the next stages of testing in order to evaluate the effectiveness of applying VR to undergraduate student recruitment.

In this paper we present details of a virtual tour and game for VR headset that are designed to investigate an interactive and engaging approach of applying VR to student recruitment for an undergraduate course. The VR tour employs a floating menu to navigate through a set of 360° panoramic photographs of the teaching environment and uses hotspot interaction to display further information about the course. The VR game is a fast-paced shooting game. The course information is embedded on cubes that the player needs to focus on and destroy. The game experience is expected to generate an engaging way to promote the course. This work in progress outlines the concept and development of the prototype, and discusses the next stages of testing in order to evaluate the effectiveness of applying VR to undergraduate student recruitment.