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VR Classroom: Enhancing Learning Experience
with Virtual Class Rooms
Kodai Oiwake, Kosuke Komiya, Hina Akasaki, Tatsuo Nakajima
Department Computer Science and Engineering, Waseda University
{k_oiwake, kosukekomiya, h.akasaki, tatsuo}@dcl.cs.waseda.ac.jp
Abstract—Virtual reality technologies are promising to
effectively enhance our daily experiences. Enhancing learning
experiences with virtual reality technologies is one of
important directions to make the technologies change our daily
lifestyle, because students in classes need not gather together in
the same location. However, virtual reality technologies offer
plausible feeling to them residing in the same location.
Students can attend their classes anytime anywhere from their
mobile virtual reality (VR) devices, but they feel to take a class
in the same class room. Moreover, virtual reality technologies
can provide additional effects that cannot be realized in
traditional real-world class rooms. The paper proposes VR
Classroom that offers a virtual space where students and a
teacher virtually reside in the same location. VR Classroom
also provides several features to motivate students through
fictionality realized by virtual reality technologies. After
describing an overview of VR Classroom, we show its
prototype implementation and user study.
Keywords – Virtual Reality; Distributed Classrooms; Mobile and
Ubiquitous Access; Human Motivatin;
I. INTRODUCTION
In education, classes are usually taken by many students
and play a very important role in learning. Currently, these
classes are offered in various forms. The most common
way is that a teacher and students gather together at the
same location and the teacher gives instructions directly to
the students. Although this real-world class form has the
advantage where students and teachers can communicate in
the real-time with face-to-face, the cost that the students
and teachers need to gather in the same location is high, in
particular, in the case that the students reside in various
distant locations Another way is to take classes remotely
through information technologies such as recorded video
streaming. This approach not only reduces the cost of
gathering together in the same location as opposed to real
world class forms but also has the advantage that students
can watch the contents that they want to use at any time,
especially in the case of video streaming. On the other hand,
since students and teachers cannot communicate in real-
time with face-to-face, the disadvantage makes it hard to
offer immediate feedbacks from students.
k,36-
However, the recent progress of virtual reality (VR)
technologies may overcome the drawbacks because the
technologies offer people plausible feeling to virtually
gather together in the same location although they actually
reside in distant locations [11, 12]. They can use mobile
devices such as head mounted displays (HMDs) or
smartphones to access virtual spaces where they collocate
virtually. Also, there are several character input methods
like [5]. Therefore, class rooms to take lectures becomes
ubiquitous and mobile, and the structure of classes may be
changed from a formal style to a more ad-hoc style.
Moreover, the virtual space is different from real spaces
because people may become fictional characters, and also
various fictional effects can be incorporated in the virtual
space [3]. These fictionality may increase students’
motivation for their learning in the virtual space [2, 9].
These features are very promising to be used for enhancing
people’s learning experiences.
In this paper, we propose VR Classroom that offers a
virtual space where students and a teacher virtually reside at
the same location (see Figure 1). VR Classroom offers the
following features.
1. A teacher and students gather together in the same
virtual space realized by virtual reality technologies.
2. Each person in the virtual space can communicate with
each other through an anonymous text chat functionality
offered by VR Classroom.
3. All class materials and objects used in classes can be
shown in front of students, and it is possible to add
special effects on them.
4. Each student can use a familiar avatar as his/her agent.
The first and second feature allow VR Classroom to realize
face-to-face communication virtually even if they reside in
distant locations without increasing the cost to gather
together in the same location. The feature enables VR
Classroom to combine the advantages of traditional real-
world class forms taken in real spaces and remote class
forms. The second, third, and fourth feature that are
essential contributions of VR Classroom are that using
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virtual reality technologies increase students’ learning
motivation. In this study, our design is based on the ARCS
model [4] that is a popular framework to design the
motivation of students in the institutional design.
Figure 1: A view of VR Classroom
This paper is structured as follows. Section II presents some
related work to our study. In Section III, we describe design
issues of VR Classroom. Section IV shows the
implementation of VR Classroom. In Section V, we present
an overview of an experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of
VR Classroom, and Section VI shows the results of the
experiment and the analysis of the results. Finally, we
conclude the paper in Section VII and also describe some
future directions.
II. RELATED WORK
Some previous researches have investigated the use of VR
in classes. For example, ClassVR displays 3D objects in
HMDs. [13] In this example, VR are introduced to help
students better understand classes. However, ClassVR does
not have functions to communicate with others in a virtual
class room or people who are in distant locations. Also,
Rizzo simulated a class room in a VR space for ADHD
children, and he succeeded in reducing the costs to build a
real-world class environment [8].
Moreover, our approach is closely related to multi-user VR
Classroom [10]. Students and a teacher are gathered
together in a VR space and classes are taken in the space.
They can manipulate their own avatars each other, and they
communicate in real-time through a text chat. Although the
study is similar to our approach in terms of the system
design, the system does not evaluate the effect of classes in
a VR space through a user study.
A new learning style named active learning recently
becomes popular [7]. In a conventional learning style,
students mainly listen to a teacher’s lecture. On the other
hand, in active learning, students themselves lead their
classes, and students actively participate to their classes
through discussions or group works.
III. DESIGN OF VR CLASSROOM
Maintaining the motivation of students to classes is one of
the most important factor in learning. To achieve or to learn
something through the classes, students need to make their
efforts continuously. Therefore, if the classes give students
incentives to continue to make their efforts and maintain
their motivation, their learning experiences in their classes
become more fruitful. The ARCS model [4] is a framework
that explains essential factors of human motivation in
learning. In this framework, there are four elements that
increase students’ leaning motivation: Attention (getting or
sustaining attention), Relevance (the reason why they learn),
Confidence (level of understanding), and Satisfaction
(feeling good to listen to classes). Designing classes with
these elements in mind will make the classes more effective.
VR is a technique that makes people feel that non-existing
things actually exist by offering images or sounds through
information technologies. When a system presents what
people cannot see or where people cannot visit immediately,
VR works effectively. Because of these VR’s features, when
designing classes based on the ARCS model, introducing
VR for designing classes works well.
These are several examples to use the elements of the ARCS
model as follows.
(1) [Attention] Presenting materials or objects just in front
of each student makes him/her strongly focus on them.
(2) [Relevance] Present materials and objects more clearly
makes their contents more understandable and students
can easily understand the import points in the lectures.
(3) [Confidence] Messages from students are opened to the
public anonymously. This is because anonymity makes
people feel freely and speak more actively. Moreover,
questions opened to the public may help other students
who have same questions. Also, students can see the
blackboard just in front of them even if their avatars are
not in the front row.
(4) [Satisfaction] Using familiar avatars as their agents
makes students feel good, and their classes may become
more enjoyable or satisfactory one.
In most of previous work described in Section II, these class
designs do not explicitly consider human motivation.
However, introducing the ARCS model enables us to
discuss the motivation of students in class design more
systematically.
As a prototype to realize VR-based classes based on the
ARCS model, we propose VR Classroom. VR Classroom
focuses on face-to-face communication even if students and
a teacher reside in distant locations without increasing the
cost to gather together in the same location, and also VR
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Classroom focuses on increasing students’ learning
motivation. We realize these approaches in the following
way. We prepare a virtual space where students and a
teacher virtually reside at the same location, and they use
avatars in the space. PowerPoint slides are displayed on the
blackboard in the space. To communicate among them in
real-time like a real-world class form, a voice chat from a
teacher to students and an anonymous text chat from
students to the others are adopted. Texts can be input
through the HTC VIVE [17] controller that students use,
and everyone in that space can see the messages sent by any
students (see Figure 2 and Figure 3).
Figure 2: An input field of a student and his/her text chat log
Figure 3: A view from a teacher side and his text chat log
Table 1: ARCS model and VR Classroom
ARCS model Functions to Increase Students’
Motivation in VR Classroom
Attention Display materials or objects related
to a class.
Relevance Present materials and objects more
clearly for making their contents
more understandable.
Confidence Send messages anonymously.
Seeing the blackboard closely.
Satisfaction Use a familiar avatar as students’
agents.
Some essential functions that VR Classroom introduces to
increase students’ learning motivation are summarized in
Table 1. As avatars that students use, we adopted Unity-chan
[16], who is a 3D character with familiar looks. On the other
hand, a blue suit man is adopted as a teacher’s avatar to
distinguish the teacher from students. The movements of the
teacher are captured by Kinect [18] and the movements are
reflected on the teacher’s avatar in real-time, and this
approach avoids making students feel unnatural about the
behavior of the teacher. The teacher can present PowerPoint
slides, materials or objects in front of students by operating
keyboard (see Figure 4).
Figure 4: Materials shown in the VR Classroom
IV. IMPLEMENTATION
Figure 5: VR Classroom System Architecture
In the current implementation of VR Classroom, a teacher
and students are gathered in the same virtual space. The
entire architecture of VR Classroom is shown in Figure 5. A
teacher starts a unity application on a PC server. In the same
way, students also start an application to connect to the
server. The teacher interacts with a keyboard and a
microphone on the PC or Kinect [18] camera. Students use
HTC VIVE [17] controllers for the interaction. The
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information of the interaction by the teacher and students is So, each part took six minutes. Participants experienced all
reflected on the unity application, and it is exchanged three types of class forms in any one of them. To eliminate
between the server and the clients through the Wi-Fi the bias for the order to take the classes, each part was taken
connection. in a random manner by participants. For example, one pair
A. Hardware took the real-world class form as the first part, the remote
class form as the middle part, and the VR class form as the
Students use HTC VIVE [17] controllers and HMDs to last part, and another pair took the VR class form first, next
input texts and to see a classroom in a VR space. A teacher is the real-world form, and finally the remote class form was
uses Kinect [18] to capture his/her movements and a taken. In the real-world class form, participants and a
keyboard to display slides, materials or objects. teacher were in the same physical room, and participants
B. Software could listen to the lecture or ask questions to the teacher (see
Figure 6). In the remote class form, a pair of participants
This system is developed based on the Unity 3D game were divided into different rooms, and watched a video in
engine [15]. Also, Skype [14] is used for a voice chat. respective locations (see Figure 7). In the VR class form,
V. USER STUDY participants were divided in different locations like the
remote class form, and listened to the lecture or ask a
A. Objectives question with HTC VIVE (see Figure 8).
Through this user study, we tried to evaluate the
improvement of students’ motivation to attend lectures
based on the ARCS model. The results of VR Classroom
were expected to be in the middle of traditional real-world
class forms that a teacher and students can communicate
with face-to-face and remote class forms that students
independently watch video streaming. So, we carried out the
following experiment in this user study: Participants take
three types of class forms (real-world, remote, and VR).
After that, they are asked about their motivation changes
through the lectures by questionnaires and interviews.
B. Participants
Figure 6: Experiment of real-world class
We hired twelve participants (ten males) between ages 20
and 23 (m = 21.33), who were all college students. Eight
participants had knowledge or experiences of using VR,
while the others did not have any prior experiences with VR.
All of them had the experiences of real world class forms,
and only one participant did not have experience of remote
class forms.
C. Study Procedure
In the experiment, participants teamed up in pairs, and they
took three types of class forms which we prepared for
students. The authors of this paper played a role of a teacher
in the classes.
Figure 7: Experiment of remote class
First, the teacher told participants about the objectives of
our study and collected their basic information about their
past experiences with classes. Then, participants had ten
minutes to practice VR Classroom, where they could try
HMDs and inputting texts with a controller. After the
practice, they experienced the three types of class forms.
As lectures in the classes, history or geography that
participants were not familiar with were taught. It was about
eighteen minutes lecture, and the lecture were divided into
three parts that use the different types of three class forms.
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alone, it seems that the existence of other students

stimulated their concentration to the lecture. The second
advantage is anonymous text chat. When conducting the
experiment to extract insights, we asked participants to rate
how actively they ask questions in the classes based on the
Likert scale: 1 [most passive] and 5 [most active]. Although
the average of the results is 2, many participants commented
“I can ask questions or offer comments casually and
actively to give them useful comments thanks to the
anonymity.”. Moreover, some of them satisfied with the
answers from the teacher.
Figure 8: Experiment of VR class However, some disadvantages of the proposed approach
were pointed out. First, many participants preferred the
After taking the all three class forms, participants answered anonymous text chat, however some participants did not like
questionnaires based on the Likert scale [6] from 1[Lowest] the anonymity because the anonymous text chat is so casual
to 5 [Highest] on their Attention, Relevance, Confidence, that the class might decrease the seriousness. Second, while
and Satisfaction about each class form. Also, we conducted the participants took classes, they could not take other
interviews with the participants to extract more insights why actions such as taking notes or referring to books or Web
they answered the questionnaires. sites in the VR space. The simplest solution is recording the
VI. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS class in the VR space to review it later like in the traditional
remote class forms. Or, it is desirable to provide new
The results of the questionnaires in terms of the three types
methods to take notes and to check Web sites in the VR
of class forms based on the ARCS model were shown in
space.
Figure 9. Some participants answered the rate on the remote
classes lower. The average results of the remote classes
were the lowest in all of four elements in the ARCS model.
Some participants mentioned that “I do not prefer the
remote class because the class is taken from a teacher to
students from one-sided and there is no feedback from
students to a teacher”. About Attention and Confidence, the
results of the real-world class form were higher than the VR
Classroom. The participants complained “It is hard to input
texts and to take a long time for the inputs in the VR space.”.
Also, they said “I missed to listen what the teacher said due
to the hardness of the inputs and it is hard to watch slides
while a screen to input the texts was opened.”
About Relevance, the results of the VR Classroom were the
highest. The participants commented “I feel the materials
appeared in front of me are interesting and easy to
understand.”. Moreover, they also indicated “It is easy to
understand where the teacher wants to emphasize when
materials appeared so the class becomes more meaningful.”.
Also, about Satisfaction, participants evaluated that “The VR
class is the best.”. They mentioned “A familiar avatar made
the class more enjoyable and if there are a lot of visible
options of avatars, I can express my identity and the
empathy on the avatars would be increased gradually.”.
We found other advantages of the VR Classroom from the
participants’ comments in the interview. First, like the real-
world class forms, the participants thought “There are other
students who were taking the same lecture together in the
same VR space.”. Compared with when taking a lecture
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Figure 9: Results of questionnaires based on the ARCS
model
VII. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
VR Classroom reduces the cost of gathering of a teacher and
students in the same location in comparison with the real-
world class forms. The approach realizes the advantages of
the real-world classes such as increasing the students’
motivation that there are other students in the same class
together and the real-time face-to-face communication
among them, that cannot be realized in the remote class
forms. Moreover, by introducing VR’s advantages such as
using familiar avatars, displaying 3D materials or objects in
front of students and chatting texts anonymously, the
proposed approach succeeded in motivating students based
on the ARCS model. Through the experiment, as shown in
the paper, VR Classroom could motivate students more
strongly.
The current limitations of this study are that we did not
conducted real class environments. Also, the current VR
Classroom offers limited haptic feedbacks, the approach
proposed in [1] may be a possible direction. Currently, we
also do not understand which type of classes are suitable for
VR Classrooms. Therefore, we should investigate the issues
in the next step.
In the future, we would like to apply other possible class
forms like active learning mentioned in the related work
section. In active learning, the class activities such as group
work or debate are actively led by students. When these
activities are done in the VR space, using the ARCS model
also offers good and systematic guides to motivate students.
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