Advancing VR edutainment design in blended learning: Learners’ views from wine classroom

Previous research has explored virtual reality in wine education, but has primarily focussed on instructional design and learning outcomes, neglecting user interface and experiential (UI/UX) aspects. Therefore, challenges remain for incorporating VR technology in wine classrooms in a blended classroom format, such as limited VR expertise, inadequate technical preparation, and student resistance to pedagogical change. To complement and optimize these gaps, the researcher designed a VR experience system to transform sommelier courses into immersive blended learning experiences. Using a mixed-method approach combining experiments and interviews with 40 participants, this study explored the differences between gaming and instructional VR design in wine education. The study highlighted key considerations in terms of user interface/user experience, including overcoming the difficulty of replicating real-world sensations, increasing engagement through controllers, and providing adequate space for movement. Ensuring comfort and mitigating physical discomfort is critical to a good VR learning experience. This study explores learners' perceptions of blended virtual reality (VR) learning in wine education, including the advantages, issues, and design strategies for improving the VR learning experience and addressing wine education challenges. The findings suggest that to improve the efficacy of VR in wine education, problems must be addressed through improved UI/UX design. This includes pedagogical labelling, sensory integration, active engagement, stability, comfort and language skill development. Enhancing immersion and realism by replicating sensory stimuli and facilitating authentic interactions is critical, as is customising the VR experience for a specific topic and implementing a holistic strategy. The addition of VR technology to the wine classroom can provide learners with feedback and a balanced and immersive blended learning experience, which can in turn improve the effectiveness of wine education.