The Applications of Virtual Reality in Education in Scientific Research in the Arab World: A Review of the Published Literature

Abstract

The study aims to provide a review of the published educational research related to the applications of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies in education in the Arab world that were published from 2012 till the first half of 2022. The research studies were collected from English and Arabic language sources. These sources include selected reputational journals and databases. The criteria for the selected research papers include having a topic related to the use of VR technologies in education, being published in refereed journals, and being published between 2012 and 2022. The selected research papers were categorized based on the education area, research design, sample, used technology, and focus. For the study, a total of 85 papers were selected. The findings indicated that most of the selected research studies examined different aspects in specific education areas including physical education and sports science, science and math, instructional technology, special education, and engineering and architecture. The great majority of the selected research studies used different types of experimental research designs. The most commonly used instruments to collect data in the examined studies were tests and evaluation forms. Furthermore, the participants in the examined studies were either university students or school students. The number of participants in most of the studies was less than 100 participants. Most of the examined studies employed desktop VR. The focuses of the studies varied but the great majority of the studies focused on the effect of VR on developing psychomotor and cognitive skills. A series of suggestions were made in light of the findings.

Keywords: Virtual Reality, Education in Scientific Research, Arab World

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-24-09

Publication date:August 31^st 2022