INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING “OUTSIDE” THE CLASSROOM WITH VIRTUAL REALITY DEVICES

Abstract

In the inquiry-based learning (IBL) students are those who construct the knowledge because they are more engaged and more interested in. In most of the cases IBL requires field trip activities, i.e. visiting places physically outside the classroom with main purpose observation for education. One of the top latest technology hit are virtual reality (VR) devices which provide new media experiences and bring VR content. IBL can benefit from this new technologies by using its highly immersive multimedia, the students will be able to go ”outside” the classroom and they will be able faster to collect IBL-data they need, to enjoy the learning process, and to acquire new knowledge in very engaging way. Research with three different devices which offer three different type of VR experience have been done. Some brief actual conclusions about the devices’ advantages and disadvantages have been pointed out. Based on this brief VR research, the paper presents a few possible applications of VR technologies in class, which expects new, enriched IBL process. Planned future steps are designing of IBL with VR devices, i.e. development and testing of VR scenarios. These steps aim VR adoption in the classroom with main purpose improvement of students’ learning outcomes.