The effect of virtual reality technology on students' performance in higher vocational engineering education

Abstract

The study aimed to determine the effect of Virtual Reality technology on students' performance in higher vocational engineering education in China during the academic year, 2023-2024. The participants of this study were 30 students from a selected high vocational college in China. The instruments used in this study were A VR lesson plan or work plan, and an assessment test. A table of specifications was provided in the selection of test items. The collected data were subjected to various statistical analyses, including frequency count, percentage, mean, standard deviation, the t- test for correlated samples, the t-test for independent samples, and One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The major findings of this study showed that the students before exposure to virtual reality technology taken as an entire group and classified according to sex, average family monthly income, and computer-usage time, failed in the assessment test; the posttest results revealed that the participants as a whole and classified according to sex, average monthly family income, and computer-usage time had satisfactory and very satisfactory performance in Mold Basics. No significant differences existed in the pretest scores, as well as the posttest scores of the student participants classified according to sex, average monthly family income, and computer usage time. On the other hand, significant difference existed between the pretest and posttest scores of students which indicated that VR technology has a significant positive impact on students' performance in Mold Basics.