A systematic review of evidence-based design and pedagogical principles in educational virtual reality environments

Abstract

As Virtual Reality (VR) becomes increasingly integrated into educational settings, researchers are leveraging multimedia and generative learning theories to enhance the design and implementation of instructional VR for effective educational experiences. This systematic review examines the current state of research on applying evidence-based multimedia design and pedagogical principles to VR in education. A total of 48 reports encompassing 63 independent studies were analyzed to evaluate the learning effects of these principles. Immersion emerged as the most extensively studied principle, while pretraining demonstrated the largest VR learning effects among the design principles. Additionally, medium-to-large learning effects were observed when generative learning activities, such as summarizing, were incorporated into VR educational activities. The review also identifies potential boundary conditions that may moderate the learning effects of these principles. This systematic review underscores existing knowledge gaps and provides valuable implications for both practice and future research in VR-based education.