Effects of Tactile Feedback on Conceptual Understanding of Electromagnetism in a Virtual Reality Experience

This research project aimed to investigate the effect of a virtual reality (VR) environment and tactile feedback on students' con-ceptual understanding of electromagnetism. In our developed ap-plication, we simulated the physics concept of electromagnetism through charged particles and their interaction through field lines and isosurfaces in 3D. We divided interactions with virtual particles into four scenarios: 1) interaction between two positively charged particles; 2) interaction between two negatively charged particles; 3) interaction between one positively and one negatively charged particle; and 4) interaction among three particles, one positively and two negatively charged. We conducted a between-group study in which undergraduate students (n = 41) experienced either only visual feedback (n = 20) or simultaneous visual and haptic feedback (n = 21). We found significant differences (p-value <. 05) regarding knowledge gain in both the pretest and posttest. However, we did not find significant differences in the posttest between conditions, but the group assigned the simultaneous feedback condition indicated that tactile feedback helped them understand the electric fields. In this paper, we discuss our results' implications in designing a VR learning environment.