Enhancing international students’ learning of Chinese cultural artifacts through immersive virtual reality
This study investigated the effects of immersive virtual reality (IVR) on international students’ learning of Chinese cultural artifacts. A 2 × 2 true experimental factorial design was employed, with 146 international students from East Asian and Southeast Asian backgrounds recruited from a comprehensive university in China and randomly assigned to either an immersive VR or nonimmersive VR (NVR) condition. Learning achievement and self-efficacy were assessed using validated instruments. Two-way ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of learning mode on both achievement and self-efficacy, with higher scores in the IVR condition than in the NVR condition (p < .001). No significant main or interaction effects were observed for student regional background, indicating that the effects of IVR were consistent across groups. Overall, the findings indicate that immersive VR is an effective and inclusive instructional approach for culturally situated learning among international students.