Explore Together: Enhancing Learner Engagement with Handheld Virtual Reality in Informal Science Education

Abstract Handheld virtual reality offers a promising approach for fostering engagement in informal learning environments, providing safe, shared, and inclusive experiences. This study examined how children engage with a handheld VR-based educational program, Solar System Explorer, and aimed to identify behavioral patterns and design considerations that support meaningful engagement in a museum setting. Across three showcase days, 53 children interacted with six virtual planetary scenes using handheld tablets in small, docent-guided groups. Five and half hours of video data were analyzed to capture physical, intellectual, emotional, and social engagement. Our analysis revealed that engagement was shaped by several key features of the experience, including room-scale exploration, the ability to share viewpoints, the visibility of peers’ reactions, and opportunities for personal content creation. The results highlight how handheld VR can promote active, collaborative, and emotionally positive participation in informal learning contexts and offer empirically grounded design implications for developing scalable and inclusive educational VR experiences.