ABSTRACT
The majority of military education and training has not veered far from the days of chalk and talk instruction. Often with technological breakthroughs comes the proposal of the next revolution in multimedia instruction. Motion pictures to radios to educational television programs have all seemed to come and gone. The next wave of multimedia learning may involve more than a digital presentation and lecture (i.e. lecture-based multimedia instruction). Researchers continue to propose that virtual reality (VR) will find its true application and/or market in education and training.
The objective of the project was to develop and provide a low-cost, scalable, and portable VR system containing purposely designed and developed immersive virtual learning environments (VLE). The purpose of the research study was to empirically compare the routine classroom instructor-led training and immersive VLE training in terms of learning and long-term retention of basic corrosion prevention and control (CPC) knowledge in U.S. Army soldiers after taking an U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command (AMCOM) Corrosion Program Office (CPO) CPC training course. Additionally, specific subjective features of the immersive VLE, such as ease of use, ease of learning, user comfort, likability, acceptability, and satisfaction, were evaluated.
