Multiplayer collaboration in educational virtual reality games

Abstract

Recent innovations in Virtual Reality technology has made it more affordable and accessible to consumers and classrooms. This research works toward investigating the impact of VR in a collaborative learning environment as part of a larger cross- platform system. We have explored three primary research objectives: 1) how do we engage players in a cross platform education game 2) is it possible for VR to be one of these platforms effectively and 3) how do we design the game so that the players have to collaborate? For all of these tasks, I helped develop the collaborative aspect of a project called CLEVR, which is a multiplayer game that places one user inside of a biological cell through a VR headset while connecting another on a touch screen tablet. After discussing the progress made on the project and the contribu- tions I made, we discuss the results of various play test opportunities through our design-based iterative research and the conclusions drawn from them. Our results show promise for the impact of VR on education and the effect it could have on the engagement of students as part of a multiplayer cross-platform system.