Mahmoud Hamash
Title: Designing VR environments for post-primary education
Supervision Team: Peter Tiernan, DCU / Gareth W. Young, TCD
Description:
Virtual Reality (VR) research has developed at pace in fields such as construction, engineering, and healthcare, with promising results. However, the use and development of VR environments in post-primary education settings remains low. There is a need for research that not only examines teachers’ perceptions of and attitudes toward VR but focuses on the development of bespoke VR environments which meet the needs of post-primary teachers and their students and can demonstrate an impact on educational and motivational outcomes. This PhD will focus on designing, developing, and evaluating research and practitioner-informed VR environments for post-primary teachers and their students. The study will engage with practising post-primary teachers to identify appropriate curricular areas which could benefit from the integration of VR environments. Together with existing literature and case studies, these curricular areas will be used as a basis to develop VR environments for post-primary education. Practising post-primary teachers will help to inform the design and development of environments according to their curricular goals and student needs. VR environments will then be trialed and evaluated with teachers and their students and findings will be used to inform the use of VR in post-primary education.
