Filled with virtual students the IVR classroom is programmed to exhibit desired and undesired behaviors. Participants can intervene in the virtual simulation by using the controller to indicate when and in what situation they would normally do so. This will provide closer insights into teachers’ ability  to recognize visual information as relevant to their instruction.

The long-term goal of the study is to use virtual classroom situations in teacher education. To this aim, the study examines the ways in which teaching in a virtual classroom can model teachers’ professional teaching perceptions.

But why virtual reality?

• Opportunity to simulate classroom situations in a standardized manner with reduced complexity
• Opportunity for researchers to bridge the gap between ecologically valid and yet fully controllable designs
• Great benefit for research on teachers’ perceptions (especially professional vision) within teacher-learner interactions
  

So what’s new?

Current approaches either lack the possibility for standardization or do not provide any agency for the participants, resulting in rather abstract and distal observations.

VirATeC tries to improve this by introducing a reactive component.

Here you can see our VR classroom:

You are interested…?

… and want to know more about the study?

.. and want to experience the IVR classroom yourself?

Click on the button below to find more information about currently ongoing studies and options to participate in the VirATeC project.

We are particularly looking for inservice teachers who want to experience our IVR classroom!

Project team

Core team at the HIB:

• Dr. Patricia Goldberg
• Dr. Lisa Hasenbein
• Prof. Dr. Richard Göllner

Further contributors and collaborations:

• Philipp Stark (Hector Research Institute)
• University Heilbronn

Some more impressions