Profiling Students by Perceived Immersion: Insights from VR Engine Room Simulator Trials in Maritime Higher Education

Research on students’ immersive experiences with fully immersive virtual reality (VR) technologies is extensively documented across diverse educational settings; however, in maritime higher education, it remains relatively underrepresented. Therefore, by using segmentation analysis, this study aims to profile maritime engineering students at the Faculty of Maritime Studies, University of Rijeka, by perceived immersion (PIMM) within a Head-Mounted Display (HMD) VR engine room simulator and to explore differences in their perceived learning benefits (PLBs), future behavioural intentions (FBI), and satisfaction (SAT) with the HMD-VR experience. The sample comprised 84 participants who engaged in preliminary HMD-VR engine room simulator trials. A non-hierarchical (K-mean) cluster analysis, combined with the Elbow method, identified two distinct and homogeneous groups: Immersionists and Conformists. The results of an independent sample t-test indicated that Immersionists exhibited significantly higher scores regarding perceived learning benefits, future behavioural intentions, and overall satisfaction than Conformists. The study results underscore the significance of understanding students’ subjective perception of immersion in the implementation and further development of fully immersive VR technologies within maritime education and training (MET) curricula. However, as the study is based on a specific case within a particular educational context, the result may not directly apply to the broader student population.