Virtual Reality in education

(1)

Bachelor Informatica

Virtual Reality in education

Tessa Klunder

June 17, 2015

Supervisors: Robert Belleman (UvA)

Computer

Science

—

University

of

Amsterd

am

(2)

(3)

Abstract

Computer science and virtual reality are developing strongly, yet their current application in education is limited. The increasing influence of technology requires children to learn more about computers and programming. For this thesis a game has been developed for the Oculus Rift to research the effect of virtual reality on children. It also provides a way for schools to teach children the basics of programming in a three-dimensional environment. The results show that children have a great interest in virtual reality and are eager to learn more about the virtual worlds. Difficulties such as motion sickness and eyes train deserve careful thought, but the user tests proved that these can be overcome. Virtual reality has many possibilities, but the step to integrating it in the educational program has yet to be taken.

(4)

(5)

3.1.2 Mini-map . . . 12 3.1.3 Levels . . . 13 3.2 Design choices . . . 13 3.2.1 Three-dimensional experience . . . 13 3.2.2 Motion sickness . . . 14 3.2.3 Reading of text . . . 14 3.2.4 User Interaction . . . 14 3.3 Technical implementation . . . 15 3.3.1 Unreal Engine . . . 15 3.3.2 Oculus Rift . . . 16 4 Experiments 17 4.1 Beta test . . . 17 4.2 Method . . . 18 4.2.1 Test . . . 18 4.3 Results . . . 18 4.3.1 Controls . . . 19 4.3.2 Motion sickness . . . 19 4.3.3 Difficulty level . . . 19

4.3.4 Times and number of attempts . . . 19

4.3.5 Question form . . . 21 4.3.6 User reactions . . . 22 5 Conclusion 23 5.1 Discussion . . . 23 5.2 Future Research . . . 24 A Experiment form 27 B Experiment results 31 B.1 Time results . . . 31 B.2 Attempts . . . 32 B.3 Form results . . . 33

(6)

(7)

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Computer science has become an essential part of society, yet the educational program at high schools in the Netherlands has hardly changed since it was introduced in 1998[1, 11]. This is in stark contrast to the rapid innovations in the professional field. These innovations result in a high demand for well educated computer scientists, which currently cannot be satisfied1_{. To}

overcome this shortage more children need to be educated in the field of computer science, so far not many children choose this education[11]. This is partially due to the lack of available computer science courses, but also because of the differences between the educational program and the interests of children[11]. Therefore it is important to find new ways to interest children in computer science.

An increasingly popular approach is the use of games to educate children. Many companies have developed games to teach them about physics, math, languages and there are also plenty of games that teach the basics of programming. Examples are MIT’s Scratch2_{, Google’s Blockly}3

and the Flash game Lightbot4_{. However these games are all two-dimensional and don’t take}

advantage of a vast growing field within computer science. Over the past few years virtual reality has revived5 _{and the large companies such as Facebook, Samsung, Sony and Google are}

eagerly investing in new technologies for virtual reality headsets.

In this study the possibilities of virtual reality games in education and the experience of children inside virtual reality will be examined. It will not directly compare two-dimensional games with dimensional versions, but rather look at possible applications of these three-dimensional games in education. This is done by developing a game for the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality head-mounted display, which teaches children the basics of programming inside a virtual environment. The main research question is:

How can Virtual Reality contribute to computer science education in the Netherlands?

With this question in mind, the project has three main goals:

• Teaching children about programming

• Exploring the possibilities of virtual reality in education • Providing a new way to introduce computer science to children

The next chapter will provide a brief summary of the current state of computer science education in the Netherlands and projects that have been started to improve Dutch education. Chapter 3 will describe the features of the game and its concept. Also touching on the possible educational application. In chapter 4 the user tests and the results of these tests will be discussed.

1_{http://www.ictmarktmonitor.nl/english-summary/#21}

2_{https://scratch.mit.edu/}

3_{https://blockly-games.appspot.com/}

4_{http://lightbot.com/}

(8)

(9)

CHAPTER 2

Background and related work

2.1 Computer Science in the Netherlands

Computer science education is offered at only 55 percent of the high schools in the Netherlands and only 12 percent of the students has chosen this course[11]. Fortunately there are a number of parties who have started projects to change this and improve computer science in the Netherlands. In 2012 the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (Dutch: Koninklijke Neder-landse Akademie van Wetenschappen) published a report with the recommendation to completely reform the course computer science at high schools[1]. The Dutch Ministry of Education, Cul-ture and Science took the advice and requested the national centre of expertise SLO to develop a new plan for computer science education. Currently SLO has a committee developing a new curriculum which will be offered for review in the fall of 2015.

Next to the changes in the national curriculum, there are projects to help startup companies. One of these companies is StartupDelta1, an initiative from the Dutch government to help star-tups grow quickly. Together with former European Commissioner Neelie Kroes they encourage startups by bringing them in contact with larger businesses and providing the necessary funds to help them on their way. One of their ambitions is to learn more children how to code. She believes that programming is the reading and writing of the future[8]. She wants to achieve this with the national CodePact2_{. In this CodePact trade and industry join forces with the Dutch}

government to teach 400.000 children how to program. The primary target audience are children from the last grade of primary school and the first grade of high school. The aim is to provide children with the option to learn how to code and in the next summer a concrete plan will be devised on how to achieve this.

But why is it important to integrate computer science in education? Computers are becoming essential in all professional fields and require the users to be able to use them. But in order to take this even further, users not only need to understand how to use them, but also how they work. One of the approaches is by learning how to program. Not only does this provide a better understanding of computers, it also teaches a number of skills. Studies have showed that children who learn to program, develop an extra set of qualities[11, 2]:

• Logical thinking: thinking in steps and how to create a structured program.

• Problem solving: completely breaking a problem down and then finding a solution that solves all pieces.

• Creative thinking: freedom over what and how to create. • Group work: working together on projects.

1_{http://www.startupdelta.org/}

(10)

2.2 Games in education

Often when speaking of video games its about the popular AAA games such as Grand Theft Auto, FIFA and Call of Duty. These games are purely focused on entertainment. But there is also an entire gaming world dedicated to the so called serious games. These games are designed to train or educate its users and are used in areas such as scientific research, military defence, the medical world and education. Studies such as Chuang and Chen’s[4] show that games improve learning capabilities of children. Chuang and Chen concluded from their research that “computer-based video game playing not only improves participants fact/recall processes, but also promotes problem-solving skills by recognising multiple solutions for problems.”

Fortunately games that teach children to code is not a new idea in the world of game devel-opment. In 2003 the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab developed the tool Scratch3 _{(see Figure 2.1a). This program allows children to click and drag blocks together to}

form a program. A similar idea comes from Google with their game series Blockly Games4 _(see

Figure 2.1b).

(a) Scratch. (b) Blockly.

Figure 2.1: Blockly and Scratch are both snap-together block languages.

There are also games who use grids and predefined moves to create a program. One of these games is Lighbot, which has become very popular on mobile devices. It teaches children to program a robot and give it a series of commands as can be seen in Figure 2.2. When satisfied with the created program, the children can execute it and the robot will perform all the assigned tasks.

Figure 2.2: Lightbot implements a grid and predefined commands for creating programs.

3_{https://scratch.mit.edu/}

(11)

2.3 Virtual reality in education

“Virtual reality is the computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environ-ment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment, such as a helmet with a screen inside or gloves fitted with sensors.”5

Virtual reality has been around for a long time, yet only recently when Facebook acquired Oculus VR, has virtual reality revived. Every day new games and demos are being developed and the major companies have turned their interest towards virtual reality. The major players being:

• Oculus VR with the Oculus Rift6_.

• Google with Google Cardboard7_.

• Sony with Project Morpheus8_{for the PlayStation 4.}

• Samsung with the Samsung Gear VR9_{for mobile devices.}

These are however mostly used for entertainment purposes and the development community is still discovering the educational value that virtual reality can bring. Fortunately multiple researchers have been investigating this and have published a number of papers regarding the subject[3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10]. For example a group of researchers have investigated the effect of three-dimensional games on the learning capability of children and compared this to two-three-dimensional games. At least three of them concluded that pupils learnt science topics better in 3D than in 2D [3, 6, 7]. One of these studies developed a virtual reality game placed in ancient Egypt, called the Gates of Horus[6]. Children were able to explore and interact with an old Egyptian temple. The goal was to reach the inner sanctuary and unlock the final mystery. Afterwards the children had to give a presentation about what they had learnt and seen. Expert evaluators then established that the children who used the virtual environment developed a better understanding of the material than the group of children who had used the desktop to explore the temple.

5_{Source: https://goo.gl/BEMEHz}

6_{https://www.oculus.com/en-us/}

7_{https://www.google.com/get/cardboard/}

8_{https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/explore/ps4/features/project-morpheus/}

(12)

(13)

CHAPTER 3

Implementation

As discussed in the previous chapter, games are an effective way for children to learn and under-stand complicated material. But how can virtual reality contribute to this? To learn more about virtual reality in education, a game was developed for the Oculus Rift. In this game children learn the basics of programming by writing programs that solve different mazes.

3.1 The game

The original idea for the game came from Google with their game series Blockly1. In this game the player has to create a program that leads the character out of a maze. However Blockly uses an aerial view of the maze, whereas this game places the player inside the maze. In the maze are seated in a car that can be programmed. When the player is content, the program can be run and the car will execute all the commands in the program.

3.1.1 Programming the car

In order to program the car, there are a series of predefined commands that can be used. These moves can be added to the program by selecting them on the “control screen” as can be seen in Figure 3.1. This screen is in front of the player when the car is not moving. It consists of a grid of square slots, that can contain commands. When clicking on one of the commands, they get inserted into the program from left to right. When the player executes the program, the screen will disappear and the car will start executing the commands from left to right. The moves that are available are:

• Move Forward: moves the player one step forward in the direction of the car’s forward orientation.

• Rotate Left and Right: rotates the car 90 degrees in the specified direction.

• Loop: when encountered, the program will return to the start and continue from there. This way all commands before the Loop will be repeated until the finish has been reached or the player stops the program. Consequently moves behind the loop will never be executed.

• If-statements: provide a way for the player to check possible paths. In this game there are three predefined If-statements. The first one checks if there is a path in front of the player and the other two provide the options to check left and right of the car. With these commands a player can ultimately implement a wall follower algorithm2_{that can guide the}

player out of the maze. An If-statement needs to be ended with a closing bracket. All the moves between the statement and the closing bracket will only be executed if the condition is true.

1_{https://blockly-games.appspot.com/}

(14)

Figure 3.1: The controlscreen where the player can construct the program.

There were a lot of design choices that had to be made in order to create intuitive controls. Lightbot3_{provided the biggest inspiration for the controlscreen. Its grid based approach provided}

the solution for creating programs in a virtual world with a game controller. However it resulted in some problems for loops and if-statements. In this game loops are only effective at the end of the program. When encountering a loop, the car will go back to the beginning, ignoring all moves that might come after the loop. It is also not possible to break early from a loop. The if-statements were the most difficult problem to solve. How do you incorporate if-then-else constructions in a two-dimensional grid? And were do you store the condition rule? The solution was the creation of three fixed if-statements. The player could only choose these three: check if a path is in front, left or right of the car. If that is the case, the moves between the if-block and the closing bracket are executed. Otherwise the program will search for the closing bracket and continue from there.

3.1.2 Mini-map

To help the player a mini-map of the maze is provided. On this map the player can easily see the shape of the maze and the location of the finish. A blue grid shows the path to the finish and the number of steps required. This was implemented to make it easier for the player to write a program, without first having to discover the entire shape of the maze. Next to the minimap is the control mapping visible. This enables the user to check the functions of the different buttons. Both the minimap and the control mapping are always visible during the execution of programs.

Figure 3.2: The mini-map provides a top down view of the maze.

(15)

3.1.3 Levels

The current prototype of the game consists of a series of five levels. These levels have an increasing difficulty level and are made to show the possibilities of the game. The first level is to introduce the player to the game and the controls. The path is a straight line and requires only three moves forward. The second level is a little tougher and requires the use of rotations to get around the corner. In the following three levels, loops and if-statements are introduced. The meshes and textures used in the levels are a part of the Stylized Rendering4 _{package provided}

by Unreal Engine 4.

(a) Level 1 introduces the controls. (b) Level 2 introduces rotations.

(c) Level 3 introduces the loop. (d) Level 4 requires a combination of the newly learnt material.

Figure 3.3: The first four levels of the game with their minimap.

3.2 Design choices

Developing a game for a three-dimensional virtual environment brings a couple of new challenges compared to a two-dimensional game. Particularly the user interaction with the game and motion sickness are problems that were encountered. In this section various design choices are discussed and the motives behind them explained.

3.2.1 Three-dimensional experience

The original design for the game had the player floating behind a robot that could be pro-grammed. The robot would walk through the maze, while the player observed from a distance. This however would not provide an optimal three-dimensional experience, because the player would not fully become a part of the environment. To engage the player more, the decision was made to set the player inside a car which had to be programmed. Then after running the created program, the player would experience directly what the consequences of the program were. On top of that the player could now move through the three-dimensional world and enjoy the scenery as can be seen in Figure 3.4.

(16)

Figure 3.4: Level 5 introduces If-statements.

3.2.2 Motion sickness

In early versions of the game, motion sickness was a serious problem. When moving through the maze with the car, players would quickly become nauseous and experience headaches. To decrease this a couple of changes were made. The first improvement was to lower the speed with which the car would rotate and move through the maze. With this lowered speed players could adjust more to the environment and become less nauseous. Second the moves that would get executed were displayed in front of the car. The user can see what move will be executed next and prepare for the movement changes. A third improvement was changing the environment itself. The large straight walls were replaced by bushes, which resulted in more open space and a reduced claustrophobic feeling. Also the asymmetric bushes provided a better sense of depth.

3.2.3 Reading of text

In the current version of the Oculus Rift (Development Kit 2), the ability to read text is not optimal. Text has to be very large before it can be read and it quickly becomes blurry when looking around. This meant that the use of text had to be limited and that written instructions had to be replaced by icons or animations. For this reason large icons and buttons were chosen to represent the moves instead of smaller text blocks as used in Scratch or Blockly.

3.2.4 User Interaction

Letting the player interact with the game in virtual reality also proved to be a difficult obstacle. The standard interaction with computers is using a mouse and keyboard, yet in a virtual world, these input devices are impractical. The user has a display right before their eyes, which blocks the visibility of the “real” world, thus leaving players blind and unable to perform tasks which require movement of their hands. Besides the limitations in the physical world, a two-dimensional mouse cursor is very ineffective in a virtual three-dimensional world. How do you display a two dimensional object appropriately? What is the right distance of the object to the camera? And when does a cursor intersect with a button or field in a menu? To solve these problems a game controller was used to allow player interaction. With a controller in hand the user does not require to move their hands and can easily access a large number of buttons and controls.

(17)

Figure 3.5: The functions of the buttons on an Xbox 360 controller5_.

As shown in Figure 3.6 the controls were implemented to be as minimalistic as possible. So children who do not have any experience with game controllers can also quickly start playing. Navigation through the move buttons is possible with the gamepad stick or the d-pad buttons. These allow the user to focus on a move and add it to the program. Subsequent to adding, a move can also be removed from the program.

3.3 Technical implementation

3.3.1 Unreal Engine

The game was developed in Unreal Engine 4.76_{. This is a very popular game engine, developed}

by Epic Games that was primarily used for first-person shooters. But as new features are constantly being added, the engine increasingly lends itself for many more game genres. Also the ability to port games to a large set of platforms and the support for VR devices resulted in the choice for this engine. The game is currently compatible with Windows 7 and 8. Unreal Engine is written in C++ and thus provides the possibility to write the game directly in C++ code. This is possible with an excellent integration in Visual Studio 2013. For the designers and non-programmers there is also the option to use Blueprints. This is the Visual Scripting system that Epic Games designed to make the game engine accessible to people who do not have experience with programming. By using blocks and visual elements users are able to generate the same code as they would have been able to do directly in Visual Studio. This project was primarily done with Blueprints. Most of the programming work went into the car itself. The game has been constructed such that the car holds all the intelligence. When placing the car in any environment, it can always execute the created programs. This allows for a lot of freedom in level creation, with the sole condition that all the walls of the maze have proper the right settings.

5_{http://www.xbox.com/xbox-360}

(18)

Figure 3.6: The event that handles player input in a Blueprint in Unreal Engine 4.7.

3.3.2 Oculus Rift

The key feature of the game is its compatibility with the Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 (DK2). This is a virtual reality head-mounted display developed by Oculus VR7_{. Oculus VR was recently}

acquired by Facebook which provides them with a larger budget and more publicity. It also sent a signal to other players that virtual reality is a serious field that will continue to grow in the future. The DK2 is the most recent version of the Rift series which has a Full HD OLED display and a camera that provides positional head tracking. Next to the Oculus Rift it is also possible to export the game to Android. This greatly improves the applicability of the game. Schools can let the children play the game on an Android device with a Google Cardboard. The interaction can then be controlled with an OUYA controller8_{. This setup eliminates the need for an expensive}

game computer and the purchase of an Oculus Rift. Of course there will be a difference in performance, since a smart phone does not match the graphic capabilities of a high end gaming PC.

(a) Oculus Rift DK2. (b) Google Cardboard9.

Figure 3.7: The VR devices compatible with the game.

7_{https://www.oculus.com/}

8_{https://www.ouya.tv/}

(19)

CHAPTER 4

Experiments

To determine the possible application of the game in education, it was tested by a number of children. The main priority of the test was to establish the user friendliness of the game. How well do the controls work and do the children experience motion sickness? And how do the children respond to the three-dimensional environment itself? Next to these practical matters, the goal is also to find out if children are interested in the game. Does this game spark their interest and trigger their curiosity? Or do they lose interest after five minutes of playing?

4.1 Beta test

Before the larger experiment, the game was beta tested by two children (9 and 11 years old). The main goals were to find possible bugs, determine the difficulty level and the overall game experience of the children. It was also used as a test run for the upcoming experiment, to find out how long it takes for them to complete the current game and where they required assistance. They played the game twice in order to see if they had fully understood the possible moves and to see how quickly they would finish the game after becoming familiar with the controls. In the first run they would not get any guidance. This was done to see how intuitive the game was by itself. The first reactions to the game were very positive. They enjoyed the three-dimensional world and the first couple of minutes were spent gazing around. After completing the game for the first time, they immediately asked if they could play it again. Besides this positive reception, there were also a number of problems they encountered:

• Control difficulties: the main problem was understanding the functions of the various buttons. They would often forget which button to press, leading to unwanted addition or deletion of moves. Important to note is that these children did not have any prior experience with these game controllers.

• If-statement: they did not understand the use of an if-statement and also got confused by the icons that were on the buttons.

• Eyestrain: after playing for half an hour they indicated that their eyes had become somewhat tired.

It also showed that they needed a lot of guidance to help them understand the use of the buttons and how to create a program that brings them to the exit. Primarily the control issues limited the gameflow and they spent more time figuring out how to add or remove a move than actually programming the car. Following their test, the game was modified to remove some of those difficulties. The controls were simplified and the colors in the controlscreen adjusted to increase the visibility of the selected button. Also the icons of the If-statements were adjusted, such that they were less complicated and more intuitive.

(20)

4.2 Method

After the beta test the real experiment could start. This experiment consisted of two parts on different locations. The first part was at the University day at the University of Amsterdam. At this event the children had various workshops in which they could participate. One of them being the possibility to play the game in the Oculus Rift. These children were between 7 and 13 years old, most of them boys. The second half of the experiment was at the DigiVita event, organised by VHTO1_{. These were all girls between the ages of 8 and 14 years old.}

4.2.1 Test

The test itself consists of three parts:

1. Playing the game.

2. Answering a number of questions regarding the experience (see Appendix A).

3. Solving two additional mazes on paper (see Appendix A).

For each child a number of statistics is recorded, such as sex, age, current school year and whether the child wears glasses. The game itself acquires several gameplay statistics, such as recording the time it takes for a player to complete each level and number of attempts per level. The latter meaning the number of programs that the player runs trying to reach the finish. It also creates a unique file name and player ID so the acquired data can be matched to the right child.

A second method used is the recording of the entire experiment. This is done with a webcam directed at the player and a recording of the game itself. This way all reactions to the game can be observed and compared to the other children.

4.3 Results

During the experiments n total 22 children played the game. Each playthrough took around 5 to 8 minutes, with an aditional 5 minutes for the questions and test mazes.

Figure 4.1: Kruse, M. (Photographer). 2015. Marc Kruse Fotografie Universiteitsdag 2015, Amsterdam. From: https://www.flickr.com/photos/marckrusephotography/18532023589/ in/album-72157651999221294/

(21)

4.3.1 Controls

The controls did not provide any immediate problems as they first did in the beta test. After explaining the controls to the children once, they instantly picked them up and did not require any further assistance. Although sometimes they did confuse the controls, resulting in the deletion of a move instead of adding it. But after taking a glimpse at the help screen in the game, they were quickly able to fix their mistake.

4.3.2 Motion sickness

Two of the children indicated that they experienced mild dizziness after playing the game. But after answering the questions on the form, their dizziness had subsided. There were two other children who indicated they experienced mild dizziness, but this was prior to playing the game. Their dizziness was caused by a roller coaster demo in the Oculus Rift at a different stand. Their dizziness did not increase whilst playing the game and they were able to finish without the need to stop.

4.3.3 Difficulty level

They did show difficulties with finding the right rotation. Whether it was supposed to be a left or right rotation. This was more evident with the younger children, than the older ones. The older girls (13-14 years old) at the DigiVita event performed really well. They quickly understood the controls and were able to go through all the levels without much explanation. The If-statement did provide some difficulties at first, but after a couple of hints they were able to produce the right program.

4.3.4 Times and number of attempts

The time results are shown in Figure 4.3, to give an overview of time spent per level for each player. The graph shows that there are large differences between the performance of the children. Some understand what to do immediately, without any assistance while other need to be guided through the game step by step. It also shows that the first and third level are instructive levels. They provide the player with new moves and give them the opportunity to apply them in a simple maze. Almost all children quickly pick them up, because times for those levels are relatively low and clustered together. The second and fourth level however, require the children to apply the newly learnt material in a more difficult setting. These levels show larger differences between the children and the points are much more spread out. The last level was intended to test how intuitive the If-statements are and not necessarily the ability for the children to understand what it does.

(22)

Figure 4.2: The total amount of time spent per level. Each point represents the individual time a player spent in the accompanying level.

(23)

Figure 4.3: The number of attempts to reach the finish per level. Each point represents the result of a single player for the accompanying level.

4.3.5 Question form

After completing the game, the children were asked to answer a number of questions (see Ap-pendix A). These were about the difficulty levels, how they had experienced the world and if they wanted to play more levels. The results (see Appendix B.4 and Table 4.1) show that children found the game very attractive and that almost all of them wanted to play more levels. The opinions about the difficulty level were however divided. Some indicated they found the game very easy, while others had struggled. However they all agreed that the last level was by far the most difficult one. The results of the test don’t show any connection to the difficulty level experience by the children and their performance in the game.

Table 4.1: The results of the form (Appendix A) filled in by the children after playing the game.

Strongly Strongly

disagree Disagree Neutral Agree agree The game was boring to play. 81% 14% 0% 5% 0% The game was difficult. 9% 23% 23% 27% 18% The environment was unattractive. 86% 14% 0% 0% 0% I do not want to play more levels. 86% 9% 5% 0% 0% The game was not instructive. 36% 23% 5% 9% 27%

Table 4.2: The percentages of children that had the correct answers for the two test mazes on paper (Appendix A).

Maze 1 Maze 2 Boys 50% 70% Girls 58% 67% Total 55% 68%

The results in table 4.2 show that there was not a significant difference between the perfor-mance of boys versus girls on the test mazes. The girls performed slightly better at the first maze, but the boys were somewhat better at the second.

(24)

4.3.6 User reactions

“I want to try it again! Until I have found the right solution!”

“The beginning of the game was very easy, but helped figuring out how to play the game. The last level was a lot of fun!”

(25)

CHAPTER 5

Conclusion

This thesis shows that virtual reality is suitable for children and the possible application in education. Children were challenged by the game that was developed and after the test they wanted to play more levels. The game is very accessible and children quickly understood the goal of the game and how to finish it. There were no significant differences between the performances of boys and girls and both genders were eager in completing all the levels. The game not only incorporates virtual reality in education, but it also provides a way to introduce computer science to children. By programming their car, children learnt the basics of coding without even fully realising they were doing it. By solving various mazes, they learn skills such as logical thinking and problem solving. There were some difficulties regarding the if-statements, but these were not unexpected. With proper guidance and more levels, children will be able to understand these concepts and create more complicated programs.

The test mazes on paper showed that children understood the basic principles of the game, but that some had difficulties with the orientation of the car in 2D. They often forgot how many steps to move forwards before rotating. Noteworthy was that these difficulties were less apparent inside the game itself.

Although there are some difficulties that have to be overcome, such as motion sickness and user interaction, this game proves that with careful thought virtual reality can be a powerful tool to bring children more in contact with technology. The possible port to Android makes it much more accessible to schools and with a smart phone and Google Cardboard children can start playing.

It is now up to developers and educational institutions to join forces and start developing new applications for virtual reality. Not only for computer science, but also for courses such as biology and physics and create an experience that two-dimensional textbooks cannot provide. Various educational parties have already shown interest in this game and the possibilities it provides. So schools are starting to discover the value of games as a teaching aid, but the step to virtual reality has yet to be made.

5.1 Discussion

Although the results showed that children quickly picked up the controls and found their way through the game, there are a number of things that would improve future tests. Due to the setting of the experiment the tests were relatively short. Children had to learn a number of complicated material in a short period of time. Also some children had already tried the Oculus right before the test on a different stand. This might have influenced some of the results, such as motion sickness or eyestrain. It is however unlikely that it would have had a great impact on the time results and the ability to understand how to write a program.

The tests at the DigiVita event were run on a laptop instead of the game computer at the university. This meant a significant difference in performance. The graphics quality as well as the frame rate were much lower and this might have resulted in a different experience. The goal

(26)

of the test was not about learning effectiveness, but more the usability of the game itself. In order to learn more about the educational effectiveness, a more thorough study will have to be done.

5.2 Future Research

For future research it is good to find more ways to introduce virtual reality in education. Children were very interested and wanted to learn more about these three-dimensional worlds. With the ability to port games to Android, the step to virtual reality becomes much lower and less expensive. A simple Google cardboard can provide schools with the ability to apply virtual reality into their classrooms.

Also this study is only the tip of the iceberg. The test group was relatively small and the experiment time per child was very short. There are many more things to investigate. For example what happens when children will be able to play more levels? The results in graph 4.2 show that the levels that introduced something new were relatively easy compared to the levels where children had to apply the newly learnt material. In future research it would be valuable to create more levels, so these differences become smaller and children have steadier learning curve. As for the game itself, there are still many opportunities for expansions. This prototype only consists of five levels and these could be extended to many more. This way difficult steps, such as If-statements can be slowly explained and children can step-by-step learn the basics of programming. An important feature that has to built in is the tutorial. In the current version of the game, children need to explore all options for themselves. In future work it would be invaluable to create a solid tutorial that takes over the role of a human tutor. This way the game becomes fully independent and can be used in classrooms to educate children. There are also possibilities to implement study material inside the world itself. For example showing animations of teaching material while exploring the maze. This way the levels can get special themes and improve the learning effectiveness even more.

(27)

Bibliography

[1] Digitale geletterdheid in het voortgezet onderwijs, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (2012).

[2] Shut down or restart? The way forward for computing in UK schools, The Royal Society (2012).

[3] A. Bamford, The 3D in education white paper, THE journal (2011).

[4] T.Y. Chuang and W.F. Chen, Effect of computer-based video games on children: An exper-imental study, Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning (2007), 114–118.

[5] C. Fowler, Virtual reality and learning: Where is the pedagogy?, British Journal of Educa-tional Technology (2014).

[6] J. Jacobsen, Digital dome versus desktop display in an educational game: Gates of horus, International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations 3 (2011).

[7] H. Leung, H. Lee, K.P. Mark, and K.M. Lui, Unlocking the secret of 3D content for education, Teaching, Assessment and Learning for Engineering (2012), W1C–13–W1C–15.

[8] NOS.nl, Kroes: programmeren als schoolvak, http://nos.nl/artikel/ 711096-kroes-programmeren-als-schoolvak.html, 17-10-2014.

[9] M. Pölönen, T. Järvenpää, and B. Bilcu, Stereoscopic 3D entertainment and its effect on viewing comfort: Comparison of children and adults, Applied Ergonomics 44 (2013), 151– 160.

[10] K. Squire, Video games in education, International Journal of Intelligent Games & Simula-tion 4 (2003), 49–62.

[11] J. Tolboom, J. Kr¨uger, and N. Grgurina, Informatica in de bovenbouw havo/vwo, SLO -nationaal expertisecentrum leerplanontwikkeling (2014).

(28)

(29)

(30)

APPENDIX A

Experiment form

(31)

(32)

(33)

APPENDIX B

Experiment results

B.1 Time results

Table B.1: Time in seconds per level for each player, ‘-’ indicates the level was not completed.

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 11901 69.4 46.1 17.5 96.6 137.6 13908 23.7 37.7 16.4 158.6 -15402 22.6 72.5 32.2 97.8 192.6 20905 19.9 88.3 20.9 67.3 202.0 22310 59.0 102.2 18.0 57.6 163.6 24153 28.5 32.9 17.3 48.7 -25133 18.5 54.1 15.3 97.5 178.6 32835 73.7 156.9 35.2 76.0 143.7 34307 44.7 37.8 32.2 119.6 109.6 35729 20.8 81.4 14.0 119.6 97.6 41255 27.8 149.9 92.1 135.1 129.5 43010 27.7 41.1 24.3 52.4 181.8 103842 17.7 28.9 13.1 40.3 227.7 113052 79.7 38.0 13.7 114.0 203.4 124224 46.1 66.1 22.6 202.9 166.0 125738 116.8 159.4 33.4 139.2 176.8 12133 51.7 96.0 17.0 53.5 184.7 25629 58.0 36.7 13.8 94.1 179.2 31002 40.0 144.1 38.7 151.6 208.0 32732 34.0 48.7 19.8 90.7 144.2 34308 27.2 68.0 23.7 64.9 278.2 35807 44.8 84.3 159.7 121.1 257.1

Table B.2: Time in seconds per level. The travel time is the time from starting the program to reaching the finish. This is the same for every player. The average time is the average time of all players after a single play through of the game.

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Shortest time 17.7 28.9 13.1 40.3 97.6 Longest time 116.8 159.3 159.7 202.9 278.2 Travel time 8.7 16.5 9.1 25.1 56.9 Average time 43.3 75.9 31.4 100.0 178.1

(34)

B.2 Attempts

Table B.3: The number of attempts per level for every player.

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

11901 1 1 1 1 1 13908 1 1 1 4 1 15402 1 2 2 2 1 20905 1 2 1 1 5 22310 3 5 1 1 2 24153 1 1 1 1 2 25133 1 3 1 2 1 32835 1 1 1 1 1 34307 1 1 2 3 1 35729 1 2 1 3 1 41255 1 2 2 1 1 43010 1 1 1 1 2 103842 1 1 1 1 4 113052 1 1 1 2 1 124224 1 1 1 1 1 125738 2 3 1 2 1 12133 1 1 1 1 1 25629 4 1 1 3 1 31002 1 5 2 2 1 32732 1 1 1 1 1 34308 1 2 1 1 1 35807 1 1 2 1 2

(35)

B.3 Form results

Table B.4: The experiment results from the form in Appendix A.

Sex Age Group Specs Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10

11901 M 10 7 No Tablet No Yes - + - - - - + A D 13908 F 13 1 Yes PC No Yes - - + - - - - + - D D Console 15402 M 8 5 No PC No Yes - + - - - - ++ D A 20905 M 9 5 No PC Yes* Yes - - + - - - ++ D D Console Tablet

22310 M 10 7 Yes PC Yes Yes - - + - - - A D

Tablet 24153 M 9 6 No PC No No - - ++ - - - B D Console 25133 M 7 4 No Console No Yes - - - ++ B D Tablet 32835 M 7 3 No Console No No - - + + - - - - + B A 34307 M 12 8 No Console No Yes - - - ++ B D Tablet 35729 F 10 7 No Tablet No No - - + - - - + - ++ A D 41256 M 6 3 No PC Yes* No - - - A D Tablet Card 43010 M 8 6 No PC Card Yes - - + - - - - ++ B A Tablet 103842 F 14 2 No PC Yes Yes + - - - B D 113052 F 13 1 No Tablet No Yes - - + - - - B D 124224 F 9 5 No PC No Yes - - + - - - B D Tablet 125738 F 9 6 No Tablet No No - - ++ - - - D A 12133 F 9 5 No Tablet No No - - ++ - - - B A 25629 F 13 1 Yes Tablet No No - - - A A 31002 F 10 5 No Tablet No No - - - A B 32732 F 10 6 Yes PC No No - - + - - - B D Tablet 34308 F 9 7 No PC Yes Yes - + - - - B D Tablet 35807 F 8 4 Yes PC No No - - - B D Tablet

- - Strongly disagree Yes* Used the Oculus right before the test - Disagree Card Experience with Google Cardboard + - Neutral Group School grade or year

+ Agree Specs Wears glasses ++ Strongly agree

Virtual Reality in education

Bachelor Informatica