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Kris Hsu | Master’s Candidate | Class of 2022�Harvard Graduate School of Education

MOTIVATING, EDUCATIONAL

VR EXPERIENCES

/ T545 Professor Chris Dede

HOW TO DESIGN

Introduction

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Theoretical Frameworks

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Student Interviews

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Overall Assessment

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Works Cited

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

VR experience description and evaluation goals

Analysis of key theories of motivation

Discussion of interviews with students about VR experience

General strengths and limits of motivation and learning

Special thanks

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Introduction

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Description of the learning experience

& goal of this evaluation

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This is a 25-minute interactive VR experience that transports players to Antarctica. Upon arriving, the player embodies an explore who embarks on an expedition to find the emperor penguin colony.

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During the entirety of the experience, the player must find the emperor penguin colony. To do so, they undergo three key activities:

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Introduction

Activity 1 Kayaking

Activity 2 Climbing

Activity 3 Tent Building

Resolution

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National Geographic Explore VR

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The National Geographic boat drops off the player in Antarctica. There’s an omniscient narrator, describing the mission to the player via the ‘headset’. The penguin colony is on the move and it’s up to the player to find them and capture photos. The narrator talks in your headphones and gives you tips throughout the journey.

Introduction - The Setup

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As the player kayaks through the Arctic ocean, they’re surrounded by a spectacle of views. Ice glaciers tower over. Orcas, seals, and penguins, jump in and out of the water. The player learns the mechanic for taking photos and every snapshot they take is saved in their virtual camera roll. Players have agency as they can:

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• Take photos and gain descriptions about the objects in the photo
• Decide which path they want to continue kayaking down
• Kayak at their own pace
• Look all around them and witness views

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The player then reaches a checkpoint at the base of an ice shelf. In order to achieve the main objective of the game – finding the emperor penguin colony – the player must get to the base camp situated at the top of the ice shelf. Time to scale the ice shelf with ice climbing.

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Activity 1 - Kayaking

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Now equipped with axes and crampons, the player must reach the top of the ice shelf. There are many possibilities that the player can take to get up. First, the goal is to first get to a smaller cliff halfway up, where the player can take a break and enjoy the view. Also at this smaller goal, the player can take more photos from this new perspective, learning more about artifacts left on the ice cliff, such as dead fish and an abandoned snowmobile.

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As players continue climbing up, they face some setbacks. Parts of the ice cliff crumble off causing a minor avalanche. Facing small problems, such as the avalanche, simulate fail states in the game. Alas, the player reaches the top of the mountain only to realize a storm is closing in fast and night is falling.

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Activity 2 - Climbing

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Visibility decreases as the snowstorm rages. The wind howls louder and the environment gets darker. These environmental cues all motivate the player to set up camp as efficiently and quickly as possible. The player hooks the tent into the ground. Moves cargo boxes onto pallets so they don’t fly away. And then enters the tent.

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Upon entering the tent, the narrator mentions how there’s no sleeping bag! Here is another example of a small setback/problem that keeps the player engaged. Now, the player must go back outside and search through the cargo boxes to find a sleeping bag. The player is also prompted to find some eye goggles for eye protection. Putting on the goggles changes the color of the environment to an orange hue. Changes in the environment also keep the player engaged. Lastly, the player brings the sleeping bag to the tent and can turn the lamp off to sleep.

Activity 3 - Tent Building

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In the morning, the wind has died down and visibility is restored. The player exits the tent and witnesses the an orange-pink sunrise paired with the northern lights. In the distance, the player sees a penguin run across. Upon following the penguin around the corner, more penguins start to be seen. The sounds of the penguin colony feel close. And at last, upon peeking over the ice hill, the entire emperor penguin colony is discovered.

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The player captures the necessary photos for National Geographic. At last, the player grabs flares and a helicopter picks them up. The player is teleported back to the main National Geographic cabin where they find their photos framed along the walls and on the National Geographic magazine cover.

Resolution

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How does VR aid educational problems?

Existing educational problems persist in classroom engagement, experiential learning, and narrative-driven experiences.

Bringing a VR experience, like the National Geographic VR experience, into classrooms could aid in increasing opportunities for:

• Presence and immersion
• Engagement with agency
• Directed immersive narratives

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Presence and immersion

Presence can also be defined as immersion, where the student in VR feels like their body is in the perceived virtual surrounding. VR creates a strong sense of presence in a virtual environment. Students in headset feel like they are at another location when they're actually standing in their classroom, living room, school lab, or bed room. For instance, one's existing classroom can become the International Space Station (ISS) with a VR experience.

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With VR, virtual field trips become possible as these experiences create a new learning environment that piques students' interests.

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Engagement with agency

Students get to interact with the virtual environment, grabbing objects and moving around in the environment, that videos or text do not afford. They engage with the environment in new and realistic manners. For example, rather than seeing images of Antarctica on a book, students can take a boat through the open sea, take photos of animals, and interact with scientific tools.

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If building a VR experience, objects should be interactable and have intent in their interactions.

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Directed immersive narratives

With narrative-driven instructional design, learners participate and shape the narrative (Dede 2017). Within the virtual environment, the use of narrative and symbolism creates credible, engaging situations (Dawley & Dede, 2013). To increase narrative immersion, designers can invoke emotional and intellectual scenarios where the story may feel more relevant with the viewers/students. The associative mental models create more room for relevancy to the student's life.

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In a highly data driven world, anecdotes are needed to help people truly understand the stories of people in the world.

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In accordance with Harvard PhD candidate, Eileen McGivney’s, research - the National Geographic Explore VR experience has the potential to affect students’ motivation to learn, self-efficacy, and identity with scientists.

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Eileen McGivney’s dissertation research compares student learning and motivation in interactive VR applications vs 360-degree videos. Students experienced 4 VR enabled lessons over the course of 3 months. Two of the lessons involved interactive VR and two involved 360-degree videos. In addition, two lessons focused on ecosystems in Antarctica and two focused on space exploration with the International Space Station (ISS).

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The research involved partnering with a local high school to develop VR-enabled lessons that aligned with the engineering class's Engineering Design standards from the Next Generation Science Standards. The teacher spent one class session per month using VR in their classroom.

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Based off qualitative interviews, the National Geographic Explore VR’s Antarctica episode was the top experience students enjoyed.

Research Context - Why this experience?

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Goal of this evaluation

Out of the 4 VR experiences we showed students, interviews with students showed that they enjoyed the Nat Geo VR Experience the most. Students noted the interactivity, pacing, and storytelling. This hallmark experience also succeeds due to its 3 engaging key activities and story-driven tasks, all transporting players to a rarely visited part of the world.

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The remaining evaluation of this experience will reverse engineer the design of the experience.

I will detail each of the three key activities that the player is tasked with, describe it, and see how motivational theories affect the experience. By the end, I hope to have broken down the experience, so that future educational VR designers and producers can easily gain advice from the design of the Nat Geo VR experience.

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This evaluation report asks:

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• In what ways does the National Geographic VR experience foster motivation for the user?�
• How might this evaluation create a template for future designers to follow & create �motivational educational VR experiences?

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Theoretical Frameworks

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Which theories of motivation are most useful to understand the success and/or limitations of the learning experience you are analyzing?

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Evaluating with theories of motivation

In evaluating the Nat Geo VR experience, the success and limitations of the following theories of motivation were used:

1. Self-Determination Theory (SDT)�
2. Theory of Flow

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Self-Determination Theory (SDT)

Self-determination theory understands motivation by investigating people’s inherent growth tendencies and innate psychological needs (Deci & Ryan, 2000).

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Ryan & Deci understand this with �competence, autonomy, and relatedness.

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To define each, competence entails being effective in dealing with the environment. Autonomy reflects the need to control the course of their lives. Relatedness is the need to have a close relationship with the experience. Social context and social interactions influence these three needs.

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As the three needs – competence, autonomy, and relatedness – interrelate with one another, self-determination within the player of the experience grow. Satisfying these three needs in the experience brings more motivation into the experience. Studies by Przybylski et. al., show that meeting all three of these needs in a game’s design serve as predictors for motivation for its players and the game content (Przybylski, Rigby, & Ryan, 2010). In the case of the National Geographic Explore VR experience, Ryan & Deci’s three needs are evident in the game design, adding to the experience’s appeal and motivational aspects.

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Self-determination theory

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Self-determination theory’s

Competence

What is SDT’s Competence?

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For Competence, receiving feedback or rewards for actions in the experience helps players crave achieving higher skill levels in the experience (Ryan & Deci, 2000). More specifically, the pacing of challenges can be designed so players continually experience enhanced competence as they progress through the game (Przybylski et al., 2010).

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Challenges that are too easy for the player may lead to boredom while overwhelming challenges may lead to frustration. A key method of acknowledging player competence relies around feedback, where the game provides performance feedback and acknowledges the player’s skillset. As mentioned in the Przybylski reading, Microsoft’s Halo game addresses feedback by matching players against others that are at similar performance. Guitar Hero uses the in-game audience’s virtual characters’ feedback to cheer or boo the player based on their performance.

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How does SDT’s competence exist in National Geographic Explore?

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In the Nat Geo experience, players do not receive any incentives or rewards that indicate their performance in-game. No score was added or subtracted while the player progressed through the game. And no incentives, relying around increasing your score. However, developing competence does not rely solely on traditional score tracking.

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The Nat Geo Explore experience, develops player competence with the following strategies:

• The experience promotes competence by counting and increasing the # of photos one has taken. The player has the goal of taking 36 photos during the expedition. With every photo taken, the photo counter not only ticks up but the narrator also teaches you about the scene you captured. Only content filled photos get descriptions spoken by the narrator, incentivizing players to take superb photos. �
• More importantly, competence develops through the storytelling of the game, wherein the reward is completing one objective and progressing to the next. With three different activities in one VR experience, the player gets to develop and redevelop competence three different times. �
• The competence here develops with the progression through the objectives. While there is no tangible trophy received in the game, the metaphorical trophy exists in kayaking through the ocean to reach the checkpoint at the ice cliffs. Then, one scales the entire ice cliff and reaches the top. Alas, one successfully sets up camp to survive the freezing night. These challenges, each paired with the positive feedback of completing the activity, afford three different situations for motivating play.

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Self-determination theory’s

Competence in Nat Geo Explore

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Self-determination theory’s

Competence Improvements

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Future VR experiences can leverage the strategies Nat Geo succeeded at in the previous slide. To further stimulate a sense of competence, the VR experience could also:

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• Add fail states.
• For instance, not rowing in the kayak causes the player to sink. Taking the wrong path during the ice climb results in a more slippery climb. Not setting up the campsite fast enough during the snowstorm results in an uninhabitable site. In student interviews (discussed further in Section 3), students noted wanting more agency to walk closer to the cliff’s edge. Another student also said, “I stood [in the snowstorm] for a minute and nothing happened. If there's no punishment, then it doesn't feel like much of a game. [It feels like there is only] one path that they lined out for you.”

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• Create performance ratings for the kayak, climb, and tent-building activities.
• At the end of each activity, players could receive an on-screen rating based on how well they performed the task. This on-screen rating generates competency competitions amongst peers and amongst one self. With peers, they may compare overall scores. With one self, they may want to beat their own high score. Both forms of competitions generate opportunities for increased replayability for the game.

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Self-determination theory’s

Autonomy

What is SDT’s Autonomy?

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For Autonomy, it can be fostered with acknowledgement of actions, opportunities for self-direction, and choice or agency (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Autonomy in games provides various choices over goals and strategies that lead to varying actions. The characters, environment, and narrative all play key roles to let players have autonomy over the missions they choose and skills they acquire. “The creators of modern games aim to provide players with meaningful choices to continuously balance their boundless curiosity against a finite pool of resources and talent” (Przybylski et al., 2010). Players should feel empowered to shape the game’s narrative.

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How does SDT’s autonomy exist in National Geographic Explore?

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Self-determination theory’s

The player experiences life as a Nat Geo explorer, as they navigate in and interact with the Antarctic environment.

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• While kayaking, the player first gets to select if they want to do the activity sitting or standing. While rowing, they can move their controllers at their own pace, controlling how fast they row through the ocean. They can stop and enjoy different animals, snapping photos of them at their own pace. Small icebergs emerging from the ocean provide opportunities to choose which direction they want to row. �

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Autonomy in Nat Geo Explore

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Self-determination theory’s

• While ice climbing, players have the opportunity to choose a difficult or easy level for the ice climbing. The level of difficulty they select determines the path they’ll climb. As players climb, there are artifacts, such as an abandoned snowmobile or half-eaten fish, to view. Taking photos of these triggers the narrator’s auditory description. A small avalanche also strikes halfway up the climb. While these events do directly impacted the player’s performance, they add to the feelings of an expansive virtual scene and unexplored world. �
• While setting up camp, they have immense agency to navigate around the site via walking, which is teleporting in VR. They move around the campsite to gather the right materials that help them successfully set up their campsite. The players must find certain objects, such as eye protection or sleeping bags, to progress through each objective and successfully sleep.

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All throughout the experience, the player has the autonomy to take photos of anything around them. Some photos they take may trigger descriptions from the narrator. This persistent photography activity lets players always have another task they could do, aside from the immediate activity.

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Autonomy in Nat Geo Explore

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Self-determination theory’s

Autonomy Improvements

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As discussed above, several of the instances for autonomy are really strategies to feel like they can shape the game’s narrative. To further improve autonomy, the following strategies could be implemented:

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• Increase the stakes of player’s choices.
• While players can select paths to kayak or routes to ice climb, these paths do not change the narrative. For instance, what if a different kayak path led to a new interaction with a sea animal? Or if an ice climbing path led to a detrimental avalanche? While they have choices and autonomy, their choices mainly impact the pacing of the game, such as spending more time kayaking or climbing. Some students noted that it felt like there was one path for them to follow. �
• Encourage discovery and exploration.
• The narrator seemed to always have a goal for the player, which revolved around finishing the activity to get to the next. While the end goal is finding the penguin colony, the world can feel more unexplored if players could walk/teleport to more locations. Several interviewed students noted wanting to go closer to the edge of cliffs to experience the sense of height. In addition, more objects could be interactable, specifically inside of the tent during the tent scene. Every interactable object should have a functional use case, adding to the environment. This increased interactivity understandably comes at a higher production cost.

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Self-determination theory’s

Relatedness

What is SDT’s Relatedness?

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For Relatedness, this need is fulfilled with feelings of belonging and connectedness with others (Ryan & Deci, 2000). The element of social interaction is important for games and experiences. Players gain opportunities to interact and connect within large shared virtual worlds, while also occupying geographically remote realworld locations (Przybylski et al., 2010). An online team-based game, such as World of Warcraft, puts players into teams as they accomplish missions. Their successes may lead to the formation of longer-term groups, known as guilds, factions, or clans, that continue even outside of the gameplay. Other forms of relatedness include internet-based technologies that support longer term relationships between players. For instance, web forums, chat channels, and voice chat channels all help players create social bonds to cooperate in person or remotely (Przybylski et al., 2010).

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Self-determination theory’s

The National Geographic Explore game is a single player experience in the VR headset. The only other person interacting with the player is the narrator, framed as the player’s expedition manager. He speaks to the player via a walkie talkie throughout the experience. He first drops the player off in a helicopter, describes the mission, then flies out. As the player takes photos throughout the experience, the narrator teaches the player about what’s seen. Despite this VR experience lacking elements of relatedness, the experience narrative persists around being a solo explorer in Antarctica, and learning how to navigate the space with your existing resources.

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Despite the experience itself not lending high relatedness for players, the relatedness for VR experiences can persist before and after the experience. The VR technology and its deployment can also afford relatedness in the following ways: �

• Discussion in headset. While user testing the experience in a high school, key observations showed students talking aloud to their peers in the classroom. They would scream about different events they enjoyed or scream out questions. Even though the students were watching the VR experience at their own pace and in their own headset, they would still openly discuss the experience with one another. �
• Discussion out of headset. Observations in the high school showed that, after the experience ends and students take off the headset, they would start to chat about the experience with their peers. The VR experience has the power to promote discussion amongst peers. It serves as a key point of discussion.

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Relatedness in Nat Geo Explore

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Self-determination theory’s

To further improve relatedness, the following strategies could be implemented:

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• Immersive experiences persist before and after the experience.
• While the VR experience does not immediately lend a shared virtual world for players, it does lend a shared discussion around the experience for its players, before and after the experience. Relatedness persists before and after the experience as students learn about the content in groups. �
• Immersive experiences persist in our real world.
• For instance, there could be an online community where students discuss their experiences on a forum webpage. In the case of our research, students took off their headsets and then got into groups to discuss what they saw, thought, and wondered about the experience. In the case of Nat Geo, this discussion could persist on an online forum. �
• Evoke feelings of multiplayer gameplay.
• With the appropriate amount of production funding, multiplayer features could be added where players can kayak, climb, and build the tent together with another player.
• Leaderboards. If the recommendations from the competence section were implemented, then player scores for each activity could be input into leaderboards, evoking feelings of multiplayer gameplay.
• Online Gallery. With the 36 photos that each player captures during the experience, there could be an online gallery of every player’s photo. Their photographs could get displayed to the world.

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Relatedness Improvements

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Theory of Flow

An experience that evokes flow provides a sense of discovery, transports a person into a new reality, and pushes them to higher levels of performance (Csikszentmihalyi, 2009).

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Flow can transform the way we perceive reality, especially when different fantasy and disguise methods are used. An experience that evokes flow provides a sense of discovery, transports a person into a new reality, and pushes them to higher levels of performance (Csikszentmihalyi, 2009). As the player grows through the activities, the player also becomes more complex.

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To break down the graph, skill is on the x-axis and challenge is on the y-axis. The player may start at A1 in the flow channel and then, if challenge does not increase, they’ll continue to develop skill and reach boredom at A2.

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One cannot enjoy doing the same thing at the same challenge level for long. Alternatively, having challenges increase too much while one’s skill at a standstill could lead to anxiety at A3. Players grow bored or anxious, which changes the desire to enjoy the task again. This urge will push one to improve their skills or find new challenges for them.

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Flow

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• The player progress through 3 key activities.
• After completing one activity, the player gains a sense of discovery as they get to try a whole new task with a whole new objective. The 3 activities include kayaking, ice climbing, and setting up camp. With each new activity, there is a new game mechanic to learn. By the end of the experience, players have learned 3 new mechanics. Each activity encourages flow, challenging enough to keep the guest’s flow from halting and starting the next activity before flow stalls. This experience increases flow by offering smaller, achievable tasks to accomplish throughout the 25 minute VR experience.

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• There exists an overarching story-driven objective.
• The introduction of the experience sets up the premise, where the narrator tells you about your role as an explorer. In addition to the 3 key activities, the overall design of the experience culminates to one greater objective – capturing photographs of the hidden emperor penguin colony. Players learn about this overarching objective at the start of the experience and every key activity builds towards this goal. With this key mission, the experience makes the activities worth pursuing despite their challenge levels.

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• In addition, the player faces problems along the way. For instance, at the ice cliff, ice falls off the cliff while climbing. At the campsite, the player’s visibility decreases as the snow and darkness roll in. These environmental changes increase the challenge, providing the right amount of anxiety to prevent boredom, during the experience to keep the player in the flow channel.

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Flow in Nat Geo Explore

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Vary the difficulty level. The experience has a mostly constant skill level. The kayaking skill stays constant with rowing and serves as a scenic exploration of Antarctica. The ice climbing activity has the most flow as the player encounters an obstacle during the activity. Ice falls from the cliff and tumbles down to the water. However, this ice is a pure aesthetic event and does not affect the climber. Lastly, the campsite is as simple as moving boxes around. These can be improved with increased difficulty during the tasks. For instance, more obstacles can interfere with the activity and the players need to figure out how to overcome them.

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For kayaking, after learning the rowing mechanic, the remainder of this activity is the same rowing motion through the water. Obstacles such as sea animals emerging or small crevices to row through could add more challenge.

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The ice climbing activity consists of the same ice picking mechanic, sticking the axes into the ice to pull oneself to the top. An ice avalanche occurs right next to the player, but this is a pure aesthetic event that does not affect the player. This avalanche could increase challenge levels by forcing a change in climbing path or changing the grip of the ice picks.

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Lastly, the campsite is setting up ropes for the tent and moving boxes around. The challenges are also more visual challenges, such as decreased visibility with the snowstorm and wind. This could be improved with the snowstorm and wind affecting the player’s performance. For instance, maybe objects are harder to grab or more slippier, or there is more urgency with a set time limit on how long you can be outside of the tent.

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Overall, this experience has purely visual challenges. Instead, they should also affect the player’s performance.

Improvements for Flow

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Supplementary knowledge prior to the experience. Prior to presenting the player with the entire experience’s challenge, players could learn about Antarctica. They could enter the experience with more foundational knowledge about the environment they’re going to enter. For instance, in the research with Eileen, a group of students watched a 360 video, where they shadowed an Antarctica Explorer around for a day. This video was much more informational and didactic, teaching facts about the explorer’s trips.

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Interviews from students showed that they enjoyed learning about the location and the explorer tasks before suiting up as the explorer in National Geographic Explore.

• One student mentioned, “First I watched a video and then I was able to experience it. Because that’s how I learn, I like seeing the teacher doing something and then I get to do it after.”

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Supplementary knowledge, such as an informational video prior to this interactive VR experience, helps students achieve a flow state because the challenge of exploring Antarctica is presented at a level appropriate to their existing knowledge.

Improvements for Flow

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Interviews with Students

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The interviews were conducted for Harvard PhD candidate Eileen McGivney's dissertation. �For the purpose of this evaluation paper, I’ve evaluated the interviews for key student quotes and insights, where they recommend how to improve VR experiences.

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Context for Student Interviews

As a research assistant under doctoral candidate, Eileen McGivney, I conducted interviews with students after showing students the National Geographic Explore VR experience. Eileen’s interview protocol focused on students’ sense of agency, identity exploration, and sense of self. We also asked students about how the VR experience compares to the other VR experiences students were shown during the research. �The majority of students liked the National Geographic Explore experience the most.

The following slides synthesize recommendations that students offered during their interviews. The slides also offer key design recommendations that could be used for the design of future educational VR experiences. The direct quotes from students reaffirm existing VR design features and also recommend future possible VR design features.

The following is anecdotal evidence based on individual accounts. Further scientific and proof-based findings will come from Eileen’s dissertation.

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Design Recommendation

In addition to the National Geographic Explore experience, students also tried the Mission ISS experience, where they experienced life as an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS).

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In regards to VR locomotion, consider: �

• Create direct moving mechanics. The player prefers moving mechanics where they can ”point at something, and it would take you there.” The teleportation system should have an indicator on where they’ll end up upon confirming the move. In contrast, the floating around mechanic in Mission ISS confused the students and made them feel nauseous.

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• Establish clear directions on where to go. If the player needs to move somewhere in the world, have constant directions on screen guiding the player. Similar to signage in real life (such as signs to find the closest bathroom), create a constant, permanent sign that guides you where to go next.

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Intuitive VR locomotion and directions

Student Quote: When we did the Antarctica experience, it was just like - you point at something, and it would take you there. I think that was better. There's a clear path on where to go. [In the Mission ISS experience, there was] just the blue arrow, shown once, telling you where to go and then just disappears, and won’t tell you where else to go.

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Design Recommendation

Similar to the previous slide, when interviewed students discussed the Nat Geo experience, they would compare the experience to other experiences. This comparison provides key insights on what students liked and disliked. �To learn from the mistakes of the compared Mission ISS experience, the interviewed students recommend:

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• Repeat the directions. The directions could be similar to signs placed in the environment, where they’re constantly there. Alternatively, auditory directions could be repeated in different variations.

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• Describe a clear objective. In the case of Nat Geo Explore, the main objective was finding the emperor penguin colony. In addition to an overarching objective, smaller objectives such as kayaking, ice climbing, and tent building lead up to the ultimate goal.

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Repeat the clear objective

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Interviewer: So you said you didn't feel like you've got to learn anything, can you tell me more about that?

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Student: Well It has to do with the instructions. It wasn't repeating enough. It’d repeat once, I'd be there and I'd just be stuck. I think it has to do with giving too much freedom.

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It would let you go anywhere and it felt like there wasn't a clear objective on what I was supposed to be doing, so I think that has a part to play on why I didn’t learn anything.

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Design Recommendation

The student would try to pay attention to the audio, but would also have to focus on a highly stimulating virtual environment. Students often found themselves focusing on either the sound or the visuals, one more than the other. And they’re often stimulated by the virtual environment they’re transported to.

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• Consider adding subtitles into experiences. For educational VR experiences, subtitles could help with comprehension in a noisier classroom. Subtitles

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Consider adding subtitles

Student 1: First, I paid attention to the visuals and then I tried paying attention to the words he was saying. I think it's because the way I like to pay attention to things, I’d rather have a visual and like a description, so I can read along with it, like subtitles. That wasn't there.

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Student 2: [After watching the people in the Mission ISS experience work], I didn't actually know what they were doing. They explained [the directions], but I'd rather have words in front of me, so I can read it myself.

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Design Recommendation

Authentically engage with the environment. When embodying a scientist, the backstory of who you are plays a huge role. Students are curious about every facet of the scientist, not only caring about the activities that the scientists do but also the gear they interact with. Creating authentic props and environments for learners to engage in could add to the learner’s sense of presence.

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Interact with an authentic environment

Interviewer: Was there anything that you wanted to do but you couldn’t?

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Student: Not that I can think of… Maybe I just wanted to see more of the gear that I would use to scale the mountains. We could really only see your hands during it, but other than this that is pretty much it.

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Design Recommendation

As part of Eileen’s research, students watched ‘National Geographic: Polar Obsession’ a 360 video in VR. When asked to compare the Nat Geo Explore to other experiences, students often drew comparisons to the 360 videos.

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One student enjoyed watching the 360 video as the lack of interactivity helped them listen and absorb information.

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Student: [With the 360 video], I feel like I can actually focus on a lot more. Versus the interactive part, we’re on one path where the only options they really gave us were, we got freedom to take photos of our surroundings. It didn’t really feel as free. Versus the video it felt like there was more to absorb. There was more to keep looking at.

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Another student agreed saying that if there is a lesson or informational component, such as the 360 video, they would prefer to do that lesson component first.

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Student: For the Antarctica part, I think it'd be better to watch the video first and then go to Antarctica, virtually. because since we're being somewhere else in virtual reality, a lot of things on our mind is we want to play around and mess around with stuff. So I think it's better to get the informational piece out of the way first and then go explore virtual reality, rather than having fun at the beginning, and then going to a documentary. Cause not everyone really liked the documentary. I had friends that thought it was cool, but not everyone said the same sentiment as me.

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Supplement interactive VR experiences with informational lessons

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Design Recommendation

In relation to the Antarctica subject:

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Student: Like in the first one they were talking about all the things that they have to go through. All these blizzards, they had to take care of themselves. And this one I was like oh are we actually going to see the blizzard happen, or are we actually going to have to get into a tent and sleep. And we did [in the interactive VR experience]. So I was like, “Oh I just did what the scientists have to do.”

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In relation to the ISS space subject:

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Student: I wouldn't have known how to move around. I wouldn’t have known I could grab the handles on the side or just anything in general, just to push myself off.

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First showing a didactic lesson in 360 video could help students comprehend the interactive VR experience better. This didactic lesson could show and describe the learning environment, which may help students be more familiar with the VR environment.

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Student: First I watched a video and then I was able to experience it. Because that’s how I learn, I like seeing the teacher doing something and then I get to do it after. It’s like oh this is how you do it and now let me try it.

Watch informational lessons before interactive VR lessons

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Overall Assessment

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Strengths and limits in terms of motivation and learning.

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Overall Assessment

Analyzing the National Geographic Explore experience through the lens of the Self-Determination Theory and Theory of Flow provide insight on motivational design features from the experience. Section 2 and Section 3 suggest detailed improvements for increasing engagement, motivation, and flow in future educational VR experiences. A brief summary of the strengths, limits, and recommendations for each section is as follows:

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The experience is designed with three key activities (kayak, ice climb, and camp set-up) that lead to one overarching objective (find and take photos of the emperor penguin colony). It is this design that sets the experience up as a motivating game with smaller objectives leading to an ultimate objective.

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In accordance with SDT, players can then develop competence and redevelop competence as they complete each activity. This progression through learning a new mechanic, receiving positive feedback, and then learning a new mechanic motivates the player.

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Overall Assessment - SDT

A key improvement for SDT's competence revolves around rewarding (and even punishing) the player's competency. For instance, adding fail states so that there is more incentive to efficiently complete activities could help. In addition, adding performance ratings for each activity helps track the player competency.

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For SDT's autonomy, players get to navigate the virtual Antarctic environment as they embody a National Geographic explorer, kayaking, climbing, and teleporting around as they wish. They can move at their own pace. However, players ultimately still need to follow the one path that the narrative design creates. Some improvements could include increasing the stakes of player's choices where choosing a different path leads to a different scenario. Currently, selecting a path in kayaking or in climbing both lead to the same outcome. In addition, to further encourage discovery and exploration, there could be more interactable objects that are also more reflective of what explorers use. For instance, more interactable objects in the tent and more authentic gear used during the climbing, also requested by the interviewed students.

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For SDT's relatedness, the VR experience lacked feelings of belonging and connectedness with others inside of the game, but it thrived on relatedness outside of the experience. When designing immersive experiences, it's important to consider how the experience lives on before and after the experience happens. Before the experience, students would discuss in groups and relate to class topics arounds Antarctica. After the experience, students would engage in groups and talk about the VR experience. Community for the VR experience may not develop in the experience, but rather around the experience.

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Overall Assessment - Flow

Lastly with flow, With varying activities, the player has the challenge of learning the game mechanic, such as rowing, then they get used to it, and then get to learn another mechanic, such as ice climbing. Improvements for flow could be made around varying difficulty levels during each of the key activities. Once the skill in the activity is learned (kayaking, climbing, or tent building), the challenge plateaus. There could be smaller difficulties and narrative setbacks within each activity increase challenge.

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In addition, if players had more foundational knowledge about the subject they're about to enter, then they could start off at a higher skill level. For instance, some students learned about Antarctica via a 360 video prior to experience National Geographic Explore. Interviewed students would know more about the environment and explorer goals with this introductory lesson. They'll enter the interactive VR experience with greater skills and perhaps be able to tackle greater challenges.

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Overall Assessment - Design Tips

As discussed in Section 3, students that were interviewed about VR experiences commonly mentioned the following design considerations:

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• Create intuitive VR locomotion and have clear directions on where the player should move to
• Repeat the directions for the objective and have a clear objective communicated to the player
• Consider adding subtitles for inclusive accessibility purposes
• Design a virtual world with authentic, accurate, and scientific props for players to learn from
• Consider supplementing interactive VR experiences with informational lessons about the VR content
• Teach these informational lessons about the VR content before the interactive VR lessons, so students can learn about the subject first and then get to be in the subject.

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Works Cited

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Works Cited

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow : the Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper and Row.

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Explore the World in Virtual Reality with National Geographic (Oculus Quest Gameplay). (n.d.). Www.youtube.com. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjLjeSQYQh4&ab_channel=Nathie

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McGivney, E. (n.d.). Research Assistant Meetings [Review of Research Assistant Meetings].

Discussions revolving around Eileen McGivney’s Dissertation Proposal and Dissertation Research

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Przybylski, A. K., C. Scott Rigby, & Ryan, R. M. (2010). A motivational model of video game engagement. Review of General Psychology, 14(2), 154–166. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019440

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Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.68

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