Learning metabolism with virtual reality to optimize biochemistry education in the Spanish-speaking region

• Students are being exposed to different digital stimulus requiring more hands-on experiences. • Teachers should face these challenges and migrate to strategies that optimize the educational process. • Virtual reality systems provide an opportunity to enhance the teaching-learning process. • Through digital systems, we can students have firsthand experiences out of human scale. • We show a digital platform developed to facilitate biochemistry learning in biosciences. Learning science is undoubtedly a challenge, considering that new generations have plenty external stimuli to overcome. Students are surrounded by digital experiences such as video games, animation and videos, etc., therefore, their way of learning has evolved to be more attached to visual and dynamic resources rather than to plain texts. Hence, the objective of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate a virtual reality environment as a microteaching mechanism for human metabolism, including the electron transport chain and oxidative phosphorylation. This was a pilot study used to evaluate the learning experience of a platform designed at our institution. The study included the design of Virtual Reality experience, the organization of activities and instructional design, and the evaluation of the knowledge acquired, as well as the students' perception of its usefulness. Nine groups of students from our institution's health entry programs, from different academic periods, were taught the electron transport chain and oxidative phosphorylation using Virtual Reality by different instructors. Their learning through Virtual Reality was compared to what they would have learned through 2D activities. The results showed that the level of knowledge increased significantly associated with the use of Virtual Reality compared to their traditional system (p<0.00001). A high percentage of students (>90%) found it beneficial to use Virtual Reality. The implementation of a Virtual Reality strategy for learning complex topics in metabolism provides a learning facilitator that students enjoy, promoting engagement, as it allows them to be transported to virtual scenarios in the actual "digital world."