Systematic Examination of Educational Virtual Reality Studies: Google Cardboard

This study aims to reveal the current situation viz. as of year 2024 in experimental educational studies conducted using Google Cardboard as a virtual reality tool. In the study, 36 articles published in journals indexed in Web of Science and Scopus databases and decided to be suitable for the research purpose were analyzed. The data were analyzed by content analysis method. According to the results obtained in the research, while the number of articles increased until 2020, it has been decreasing since this year reaching the year 2024. While the most preferred sample group was the undergraduate level, studies were carried out with the most participants between 11-30. While it is mostly used in STEM education, the number of in-school and out-of-school applications is close to each other. While survey/scale was the most preferred data collection tool, it was concluded that different media types were used in the studies. The advantages of the studies were summarized and analyzed in detail under 3 sub-themes: educational outcomes, affective outcomes and technical advantages. Whereas the most important educational outcome underlined in the articles is increases success (performance), the most important affective outcome is students develop positive attitudes. It is noteworthy that technical advantages are mentioned less frequently. On the other hand, it was concluded that some difficulties were encountered, such as eye strain and headaches.