Towards an Intelligent Tutoring System for Virtual Reality Learning Environments

This Work-in-Progress Research paper explores the development of an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) inside a Virtual Reality Learning Environment (VRLE). As technology becomes more pervasive in teaching, platforms that afford immersive learning experiences, such as VRLEs, are receiving increased attention. VRLEs engage students in a virtual representation of a learning space; however, understanding how to use and interact with a VRLE usually represents a steep learning curve, particularly for the instructor. Our work addresses this problem by integrating an ITS into the VRLE. In doing so, timely guidance can be provided to the students, and the instructor can adapt the ITS support to best guide student learning across multiple skill levels. Our approach immerses students in an engineering-based VRLE that resembles a space launch mission control. Inside the environment, students interact with the system to acquire data, compute, and evaluate options to attempt the successful landing of a spacecraft. The VRLEs' ITS provides the students with feedback as they interact with the environment to address challenges. The feedback is provided in various modalities, such as virtual floating panels with general suggestions, hints on which parameters from the calculations should be changed, and visual demonstrations of the calculations' outputs. To perform an initial validation of our approach, we compare its effectiveness against a physical laboratory version of the same experiment. The results of the interviews validated the ITS as a successful approach in providing students with prompt feedback while they are immersed in the VRLE. Overall, the work strengthens the validity of VRLEs as platforms that support more engaging and immersive learning experiences, and informs how to effectively integrate ITS within them.