Exploring University Students’Holistic Learning Experiences through Virtual Sports Participation

This study qualitatively examined how a VR-based virtual sport (virtual dodgeball) shaped university students’ psychomotor, cognitive, and affective learning. Seventeen purposively sampled students from a physical-education–related course in Gyeonggi Province participated. Written reflections and two focus group interviews were collected and thematically analyzed. Psychomotor gains were evidenced by improved agility, flexibility, coordination, and overall activity through full-body movements. Cognitively, the VR environment required rule comprehension, strategy formation, and real-time decision-making, thereby eliciting problem solving and higher-order thinking. Affectively, students reported heightened motivation, emotional immersion, and teamwork; even exercise-averse students characterized the experience as enjoyable and rewarding. Collectively, the VR-based activity constituted an integrated learning experience spanning physical, cognitive, and emotional domains. These results indicated that VR-based virtual sports held substantial educational promise as innovative tools for future physical education.