Investigating the Role of Virtual Reality to Support Community Engagement

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) interfaces are known to provide users with immersive
experiences to support tasks such as training or developing an understanding of
topics in various domains. However, research relating to using VR to learn about
unfamiliar settings and supporting attitudes towards these settings, particularly
through lower-cost VR technology is limited in nature. In this article, we describe
an exploratory study to investigate low-cost VR technology use on attitudes
toward community engagement activities. We selected the issue of homelessness,
due to the prevalence of this issue in the city where the study took place. We
focused on the experiences of conducting community engagement activities as part
of the study. Ten participants experienced becoming homeless through an
immersive VR application. In order to investigate the impact on attitudes, a
community engagement instrument along with perspective-taking subscale were
presented to participants prior to and after the VR experience. Statistical analysis
revealed significant differences in both the attitude and behavior subscales,
suggesting a positive change in intention to participate in their community and to
make a difference based upon the VR experience. Implications from the work
relate to the design of a procedure which can be used by educators and researchers
alike, to determine the attitudinal impacts of VR environments, along with
providing awareness of the benefits and practicalities of utilizing low-cost VR
technologies within a classroom environment.