VR-based Context Priming to Increase Student Engagement and Academic Performance

Research suggests that virtual environments can be designed to increase engagement and performance with many cognitive tasks. This paper compares the efficacy of specifically designed 3D environments intended to prime these effects within Virtual Reality (VR). A 27-minute seminar “The Creative Process of Making an Animated Movie” was presented to 51 participants within three VR learning spaces: two prime and one no-prime. The prime conditions included two situated learning environments; an animation studio and a theatre with animation artifacts vs. the no-prime: theatre without artifacts. Increased academic performance was observed in both prime conditions. A UX survey was also completed.