Immersive Learning That Works: Research Grounding and Paths Forward

We will metaverse into the essence of immersive learning, into its three dimensions and conceptual models. This approach encompasses elements from teaching methodologies to social involvement, through organizational concerns and technologies. Challenging the perception of learning as knowledge transfer, we introduce a 'Uses, Practices & Strategies' model operationalized by the 'Immersive Learning Brain' and ‘Immersion Cube’ frameworks. This approach offers a comprehensive guide through the intricacies of immersive educational experiences and spotlighting research frontiers, along the immersion dimensions of system, narrative, and agency. Our discourse extends to stakeholders beyond the academic sphere, addressing the interests of technologists, instructional designers, and policymakers. We span various contexts, from formal education to organizational transformation to the new horizon of an AI-pervasive society. This keynote aims to unite the iLRN community in a collaborative journey towards a future where immersive learning research and practice coalesce, paving the way for innovative educational research and practice landscapes.

1. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
June 3-5 Online
Immersive Learning that Works:

Research Grounding and Paths Forward
Dennis Beck
Associate Professor
University of Arkansas
Leonel Morgado
Full Professor
Universidade Aberta & INESC TEC

2. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
June 3-5 Online
Big problems in immersive learning research
How can we evaluate outcomes, without
the means to determine if the instructional
approaches and contexts are comparable?
How can we make informed
decisions, without awareness of what
works and doesn’t?

3. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
June 3-5 Online
Lousy technocentric research cycle
RESULTS!


Positive effect!
Neutral effect!
Negative effect!
I’ll show it
is harmful!
I’ll show
it works!
Just comparing with tech vs. without tech…
Tech
innovation!
Outcomes
without
context

= pretext
Research
the
combination:

Tech+
Pedagogy+
Setting

4. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
June 3-5 Online
The research approach error rollercoaster
Teaching
machines
ComputersProgrammingEdutainment
software
Serious
games
Immersive
Environments
…

5. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
“… if learning gains are due to novelty
effects, they tend to decrease over time as
student interest in the technology wanes.”
(Beck et al., 2024)
Novelty effects Hawthorne effect
When subjects of an experimental
study improve or change their behavior
because it is being evaluated or
studied.

6. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland

7. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
Wicked
problems
“elusive, complex, and
changing in response
to interventions that
mistakenly aim to
directly resolve them.”
Schlemmer & Morgado (2024). Inven!RA: a contribution towards platforms
aligned with Digital Transformation in Education, RE@D - Revista de Educação
a Distância e Elearning

8. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
To the rescue…
STRUCTURED

9. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
STRUCTURED
Consideration of what WORKS
●In which specific contexts
●Under what conditions
●Through which processes

10. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
Later today at iLRN 2024…


the Immersive Learning Case Sheet

…bringing
theory into practice

11. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
But where did it come from? What has been done so far by iLRN?
https://www.immersivelrn.org/initiatives/knowledge-tree/ The KT Board:
Dennis
Beck
USA
Leonel
Morgado
Portugal
Anasol
Peña-Rios
UK
Scott
Warren
USA
Jonathan
Richter
USA
Christian
Gütl
Austria
Ken Bigger
USA
Daphne
Economou
UK
Andreas
Dengel
Germany
Minjuan
Wang
China

12. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
Birds
Leaves
Roots
The Immersive Learning
Knowledge Tree
Trunk
Soil
Branches
How can we evaluate outcomes,
without the means to determine if
the instructional approaches and
contexts are comparable?

How can we make informed
decisions, without confidence on
what works and doesn’t?

13. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
Roots
Morgado & Beck, 2020
http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/9799
Definitions

14. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
Roots
Immersion
Immersive Learning
Immersive Environments
Morgado & Beck, 2020
http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/9799
Beck et al., 2020
http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/10070
Definitions

15. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
Roots
Nilsson et al., 2016
Agrawal et al., 2019
Morgado & Beck, 2024
http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/15670
Definitions
Narrative
Agency
System

16. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
Nilsson et al., 2016
Why is this important?
“But I know more
immersion
dimensions that
are not there!”
2009
Plausibility illusion is determined
by the extent to which the
system can produce events that
directly relate to the
participant, the overall
credibility of the scenario being
depicted in comparison with
expectations.
What about Social immersion?
What about Emotional immersion?
What about Flow?
“What matters is
feeling there!”

17. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
Roots
Methods
Mapping uses to the three
dimensions of immersion 01
Mapping practices to
strategies by using specific
criteria
02
● Theoretical affinity
● Co-occurrence
● Co-citation
● Etc.
Beck et al., 2020
http://hdl.handle.net/1040
0.2/10070
Beck et al., 2024
https://bit.ly/ImmersiveEduStrat
Flexible Assessment
Framework for Exploratory
Immersive Environments
03
● Adaptive network-oriented tracking-based
assessment for real-time educational simulations
● Flexible separation and reusability of several
components of the learning system
Maderer & Gütl, (2021)
https://bit.ly/AntaresFrame

18. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
Roots
Instruments
Gaspar et al., 2020
http://hdl.handle.net/1
0400.2/8444

Morgado et al., 2023
(iLRN 2023 proceedings)
Validated Questionnaires

Research priorities


Knowledge Tree structure
Narrative
Agency
System
Immersion Cube

19. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
Soil
Soil
A working group of scholars
have been meeting regularly
for authoring the ontological
and epistemological
structure.
Beck et al., 2024
https://bit.ly/ImmersiveEduStrat
The
Immersive
Learning
Brain

20. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
Mapping of the research:
●educational strategies and practices with
immersive learning
●uses of immersive environments

State of XR and Immersive Learning report
●2021 https://bit.ly/3Ku3Gqg
●2024

Scientometric awareness
●Who is the community?

Beck et al., 2023
https://bit.ly/ImmersiveEduStrat
Beck et al., 2020
http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/10070
Gaspar et al., 2020
http://hdl.handle.net/1
0400.2/8444
Tree Trunk

21. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
1) The fields of inquiry



2) the research priorities and agendas
Research Agenda for
Immersive Learning 2030
(RAIL.2030)
Dengel et al., 2023
(iLRN 2023 proceedings)
202
3
Gaspar et al., 2020
http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/8444
Research priorities in immersive
learning technology
Tree branches

22. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
Leaves
Examples: Past and current submissions to the
iLEAD stream

ILKT Case sheet

Recommendation Tool
iLRN Houses of Application
https://elegant-centaur-92b59c.netlify.app/
https://bit.ly/3yKYEmT
ILB visualization
Recommendation
tool for immersive
learning

23. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
Birds
Birds
WE ALL are the BIRDS!

●Researchers
●Practitioners
●Communicators
●Learners

24. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
Evaluating Outcomes
⇒ being able to compare approaches
Making Informed Decisions
⇒ having awareness of what works
Common definitions, instruments, and methods

Literature reviews and annual reports
(syntheses of knowledge)
Explicit ontologies and taxonomies Using exemplars, reusing/remixing content
Field-specific viewpoints enmeshed with
research priorities
Practice instruments such as templates and
forms; tools to support production, “how to”
guides, shared resources

25. iLRN2024 |
10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE
IMMERSIVE LEARNING RESEARCH NETWORK
Scotland
Daniela
Pedrosa
Carl BoelSyed Ali
Asif
Jule
Krüger
GET INVOLVED!!
- some of you have already raised your hands
https://qrs.ly/1leymkg
Spencer
Galvan
Savannah
Bosley
Marie-Luce
Bourget