The Learning Achievement of Airline Business Students on the Virtual Experience during the Pre-flight Emergency Equipment Check Procedures on the Airbus A320 Series Aircraft

Abstract

The emergence of disruptive technology in mid-1999 caused the industrial revolution, which leverages the benefits of the industry’s products and elaborates new ideas for service sectors to a new level. The recent virtual technology brings opportunities to higher education along with these digital adaptations. However, there is a need for experimental research exploring the educational influence of using immersive virtual reality in aviation safety subjects. This quasi-experimental aimed to 1) address the Airline Business students’ learning achievement after using virtual reality technology due to retaining knowledge influenced by virtual experience. 2) study the capability of immersive technology based on the Airbus A320 series aircraft’s virtual environment that establishes the Airline Business students’ learning development in three areas: cognitive domain, psychomotor domain, and affective domain. Two groups of 30 participants were recruited based on a simple random sampling from a total number of 75 third-year Airline Business students in the experimental and control groups. The parametric statistics were conducted on a hypothesis testing by comparing two measurements from the experimental and control groups. The results revealed that the test scores of the experimental group obtained significantly better academic achievement in terms of the knowledge needed to perform tasks than the control group. Besides, the behavioral learning and emotional intelligence required to complete performance-related tasks were noticed in the experimental group. In addition, the effectiveness index (EI) was computed to affirm that the innovative learning tool can be an integral part of the future physical classroom. It indicated that students effectively learn in the aviation safety context via practicing through virtual reality. The virtual experience positively helps motivate and engage students in an aviation safety study. It also profoundly enhances the Airline Business students’ competency, including knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to perform their future responsibilities as flight attendants.