The design, development and evaluation of a virtual reality (VR)-based system for learning basic car maintenance procedures

• Main Author: Tan, Sze Cha
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 2009
• Subjects: Q Science (General); QA76 Computer software
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/28252/2/Sze%20Cha%28fulltext%29.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/28252/

This research discusses the design, development and evaluation of a virtual reality (VR)-based learning system for car drivers to learn the basic car maintenance procedures. Currently, such car maintenance knowledge and skills are taught by the driving institutes or driving schools of Malaysia. This knowledge and skills can also be obtained through resources such as books, CDs or DVDs, websites, VR-based learning system, and/or attending related workshop, forum or seminar. However, a number of limitations are observed in these methods. The instructional design model proposed by Chen, Toh and Fauzy (2004) in the Journal of Interactive Learning Research 15(2) was chosen specifically to guide the design of the VR-based learning system. The model comprises two main strategies, the macro-strategy that concerns with the selection, sequence, and organisation of the subject matter topics that are to be presented, and the micro-strategy that proposes a number of design principles for effective presentation of learning materials. A number of software tools are employed to construct the VR-based learning system. The development of the virtual car maintenance scenarios and the integration of these scenarios onto the web interface involve five major steps: identify the scenario, sketch a storyboard, assemble the scene, make the scene interactive, and publish the scene. The study employs the pretest-posttest quasi-experimental factorial design to evaluate the cognitive effects of four learning modes: on-screen text (VR-T), narration (VR-N), on-screen text and narration (VR-N&T), and an additional non-VR environment (Non-VR), which uses paper-based reference material, to serve as a control of the study. One hundred and fifty three (153) students from a local college and a local university have taken part xxi in this study. The one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) is used to find if there is significant in the posttest score of the VR-based test between the learners exposed to the VR-T, VR-N, VR-N&T and the Non-VR mode. Result shows that learners exposed to the VR-T, VR-N, and VR-N&T mode outperformed learners exposed to the Non-VR mode. It is also found that there is no significant difference between the performance of the learners exposed to VR-T, VR-N and VR-N&T mode. As a conclusion, the VR-based learning system employed in this study shown positive effect, which further highlight the importance of employing VR as a learning tool. It also points to the insignificant difference in terms of the use of different feedback type in such learning system.