Students’ Attitude on the Use of Immersive Virtual Reality for Oral Presentation Preparation and its Challenges

Abstract

The study was aimed to investigate ESL students’ attitudes on the use of immersive virtual reality (iVR) mobile application in preparing for oral presentation. This study involved 24 postgraduate students from a public university in Malaysia. They were introduced to a free version of the Virtual Speech mobile application using VR Box to simulate a virtual classroom for oral presentation preparation before each participant engaged in a two-hour session with the immersive VR technology independently. Then, a questionnaire consisting of 30 Likert-scale items was administered to investigate their attitudes towards the use of iVR for oral presentation preparation. The items were categorised into three themes of knowledge on technology, effectiveness and motivation. Next, the researcher conducted spoken interviews to further investigate participants’ perception on the use of iVR in preparing for oral presentation. The findings reveal a notable lack of knowledge and familiarity with iVR for oral presentation preparation. However, the participants agreed on the perceived benefits and enjoyment of using iVR which include reduced fear and anxiety and heighted calmness and improved oral responses. Furthermore, participants were reported to pose high interest in using iVR in the future despite their reluctance to invest financially. Last but not least, the challenges reported by the participants are limited familiarity and exposure of iVR, increased anxiety and health consequences due to the use of iVR.