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With this project, we are investigating the affordances of Virtual Reality (VR) in education using the Stanford Ocean Acidification Experience (SOAE), a VR piece developed by the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University. SOAE is an educational experience that allows participants to experience how the ocean absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) molecules, how a coral reef degrades, and how marine life disappears as the ocean acidifies. Through this VR experience, participants will be able to learn about the causes and the consequences of ocean acidification (OA), as well as actions that can be taken to reduce CO2 emissions. Although research investigating immersive VR applications in multiple areas has been increasing, few studies consider how diverse audiences moderate the effects. Investigating how education works on people that hold different beliefs is important to support effective climate change communication and engagement. Immersive virtual reality products have proven popular in gaming and entertainment venues (Burke et al. 2018) . However, more scientific research on immersive VR is needed for it to become widely adopted in education. Although many studies have investigated the effects of desktop-based VR on learning (Dede 2009; Merchant et al. 2014), research on immersive VR is in its infancy and its effects on learning are still unclear (Makransky et al. 2018; Suh & Prophet 2018, Southgate et al. 2018). Most of the research has focused on a specific level of education, particularly higher education (Kavanagh, 2017) and few have investigated participants from different populations. The studies in formal education have been mainly limited in sample size and very few have looked to environmental education. As far as we are aware, this is the first multinational large-scale study investigating immersive VR's design features effects on attitude, behavior, and learning. Studies investigating the effects of immersive VR on learning, attitude, and behavior, have reported varied results. Some researchers point to the need to understand how design factors of the virtual environment can impact the user (Bailey, Bailenson, Flora, Armel, Voelker & Reeves, 2015; Mayer, 2005 and 2018; Nelson & Erlandson, 2008) . For example, Nelson and Erlandson (2008) investigated the multimedia environments used with more than 10,000 middle school students. The authors reported that many students had difficulty focusing and keeping their attention on relevant information in the multiple sources of information available while exploring the virtual environment. From the Cognitive Load Theory perspective, Mayer and Clark (2008) suggest that the stimulus-rich multimedia environment results in a paradox in which the simultaneous presentation of multiple stimuli requires greater cognitive effort to process visual, auditory, and textual information. This cognitive overload makes it more difficult for learners to process the information. Considering the learning processes, three cognitive demands are involved: extraneous cognitive load (processing information not relevant to the learning goals); intrinsic cognitive load ( processing information relevant to the learning goals) and germane cognitive load (learner's effort to construct schemas about the information being processed) (Sweller, 2005). Hence, multimedia should design environments that reduce extraneous cognitive load to avoid unnecessary cognitive overload to impact information processing (Sweller, 2005, Mayer, 2018) . Design principles determine how multimodal elements such as pictures, text and sounds can be presented in order to help learners to manage the cognitive load (Nelson & Erlandson, 2008). Research investigating specially two- and three dimensional monitor-based multimedia environments have suggested some design principles to improve learning and attention. Therefore, we will look into 4 main dimensions: 1. Pedagogical Approach: Among the design principles considered when developing a multimedia environment, we aim to investigate how the principles of contiguity (corresponding words and images should be presented close to each other in time and space) and segmenting (message should be presented in segments rather than continuously) can affect learning, behavior, concern, severity, causes, thoughts about CO2 increase, presence, self-efficacy and trust. Although these design principles have been greatly studied using multimedia-based monitors (Nelson & Erlandson, 2008; Mayer, 2005 and 2018), few studies have investigated how design elements impact the user in immersive VR, in which the increased immersion affects the stimuli perception and cognitive processing. Hence, we will investigate how segmented vs non-segmented conditions impact not only learning, but also the other dependable variables that we are investigating in this study. 2.Voice-over Gender: In the field of human-computer interaction, several researchers have investigated how the voice of the computer or robot can become a persuasive agent and how humans experience these interactions. These researchers have demonstrated that the role played by the gender of the computer is influenced by several parameters such as the gender of the humans themselves (Ghazali, Ham, Barakova & Markopoulos, 2018; Sandygulova & O'Hare, 2018). Gender stereotypes also seem to play an important role in the way humans experience the interaction with the voice of a computer (Nass, Moon, & Green, 1997; Tay, Jung, & Park, 2014) . Also, Khashe, Lucas, Becerik-Gerber, and Gratch (2017) argued that adults might be more inclined with pro-environmental requests made by a female computer voice. In terms of trusting the information received, some studies have shown that participants used to trust more in information received from a male narrator than a female narrator (Lee, Nass & Brave, 2000; Nass & Moon, 2000). Given this research, the voice chosen for any human-computer interaction must be considered. As of today, the VR research community has not yet explored the role of the voiceover gender on the user's experience or its impact on learning. We aim at understanding how female and male narrator impacts the learning of individuals from a wide variety of age, background and locations, as well as their impact on behavior, concern, severity, causes, thoughts about CO2 increase, presence, self-efficacy and trust 3.Embodied Cognition The interactions between body movement and human cognition has been greatly studied (Gallagher, 2005; Wilson, 2002). Research from multiple backgrounds has shown that body activity plays important roles for generating learning (Barsalou, 2008; Decety & Grèzes, 2006; Glenberg, 2010; Goldin-Meadow, 2009; Hostetter & Alibali, 2008; Niedenthal, Barsalou, Winkielman, Krauth-Gruber, & Ric, 2005). Also, interacting and moving in an environment can allow people to create social and psychological attachments to it (Clark, 1997), what has shown to induce attitude and behavior change (Kilteni et al., 2012). As immersive VR allows users to move and interact with virtually any environment it affords situated action. In turn, situated action has shown to improve learning because it occurs in the environment being studied and users can interact with the environment (Gallagher, 2005). However, few studies have been conducted investigating how body movements in immersive VR can affect learning, attitude and behavior (Lindgren & Johnson-Glenberg, 2013; Markowitz et al, 2018). Hence, we want to compare seated vs standing conditions impact on learning, behavior, concern, severity, causes, thought about CO2 increase, presence, self-efficacy and trust. 4.Message framing (Climate Change vs Ocean Acidification) The way individuals invest in mitigation behaviors depends on the framing of the issue at stake (Boykoff, 2011; Morton et al., 2011). Previous research on environmental issue framing has showed that loss-framed message might trigger a greater intention to act upon these environmental issues (Davis, 1995) but the uncertainty associated with the issue seems to also have a significant impact in the individual reaction (Morton, Rabinovich, Marshall, & Bretschneider, 2011).The research on message framing and climate change (an uncertain issue in term of consequences) has led to somewhat inconsistent findings. As the importance of the message framing in VR in relation to climate change has not been explored yet, we propose to create different versions of the simulation with different message framing (climate change vs ocean acidification) in order to understand how which type of framing affects learning, behavior, concern, severity, causes, thought about CO2 increase, presence, self-efficacy and trust. |
