Impacts of Immersive Virtual Reality Devices on Learning Outcomes across Disciplines in Higher Education: A PRISMA-Based Systematic Review

The rise of immersive virtual reality (IVR) in these years has made it a popular tool in higher education as measures to improve the learning and education outcome. Nonetheless, the effect of IVR devices and tools remains unclear and what IVR tools are most effective in improving the learning outcome across discipline, be it sciences or humanities, are left to be investigated. In the present work, we made a systematic review per the PRISMA guideline based on data from such databases as the Web of Science, EBSCO, Wiley Online Library, and Scopus in June 2023. In our initial search per a range of codes for data inclusion and exclusion, we obtained 605 published works, in which 27 articles were used as the final samples for review. As revealed in our analysis, the standalone virtual reality headsets turned out to be the most significant positive contributor to the students’ test scores and their learning satisfaction; personal computer virtual reality (PC VR) headsets were found to be have the second strongest impact. It was also found that students benefited from these tools the most in disciplines that ask for the capacities of spatial understanding, visual learning, and hands-on skills, such as architecture, engineering, chemistry, and physics; however, in disciplines like biology, astronomy, language learning and cultural heritage research, these VR devices and tools showed lukewarm performance in explaining abstract concepts, without significant advantages over traditional educational models.