Immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality are gaining in popularity and expanding in educational use. However, there are still many gaps in the research of virtual reality’s effectiveness in the higher education classroom. The research described here examines the effectiveness of virtual reality as an initial laboratory activity in an undergraduate cell biology course. This is an extension of our previous publication that shows perceived student learning gains. In our current research which examines cell biology sections in spring 2020 and 2023, students were asked to complete an attitude survey similar to what we used before, comparing virtual reality to another well-studied active learning strategy (concept mapping). This time the survey was extended to also include questions about feelings of belonging and showed strong support for the use of virtual reality as a tool to increase this vital aspect of higher education in addition to benefits such as a perceived increase in understanding, engagement, and interest for the subject matter. Using pre- and post-assessments with the use of virtual reality resulted in quantifiable learning gains that were statistically significant for a cell labeling and matching assessment and similar to learning gains achieved with cell concept mapping. Both virtual reality and cell concept mapping resulted in learning gains, while use of these different types of active learning strategies yielded different benefits in student surveys. This research adds to the growing body of literature studying the effectiveness of virtual reality in STEM higher education.
