Effects of Immersive Learning with Different Discussion Formats on Elementary Students’ Learning Outcomes, Cognitive Load, and Flow: A Case Study of “My Hometown

Abstract

As virtual reality (VR) and extended reality (XR)
technologies are increasingly introduced into elementary
school classrooms, immersive learning has shown potential
for enhancing students’ learning engagement. However, the
extent to which different interaction designs consistently
contribute to learning outcomes remains unclear. This study
focused on a fourth-grade social studies unit, My Hometown,
and integrated XR live-streamed co-learning with VR
instructional materials to examine the effects of different
discussion formats on students’ learning achievement,
cognitive load, and flow experience. A quasi-experimental
design was adopted. Participants included 74 fourth-grade
students from three classes in two elementary schools in
Hsinchu County, Taiwan. Two experiments were conducted to
compare face-to-face classroom discussions and
metaverse-based online discussions, as well as learning
performance across different classes under the same
immersive learning configuration. The results indicated no
significant differences between discussion formats in terms
of overall learning achievement or cognitive load. However,
students who participated in metaverse-based online
discussions reported significantly higher levels of flow
experience than those engaged in face-to-face discussions.