Developing Professional Competencies Through Authentic Formulation Troubleshooting in an Immersive Learning Environment

Undergraduate chemistry programmes increasingly need to develop professional competencies such as problem-solving, technical communication, and collaboration alongside disciplinary knowledge, yet conventional verification-based laboratory instruction rarely develops these competencies together. This study investigated whether an immersive learning environment built around authentic, iterative formulation troubleshooting was associated with differences in four professional-competency outcomes—problem-solving, technical project writing, oral presentation, and collaborative attitude—in an undergraduate Cosmetic Chemistry course. A quasi-experimental, non-equivalent comparison-group design involved 47 chemistry students in two intact classes (immersive condition, n = 25; comparison condition, n = 22). Because each condition was represented by a single intact class and assignment was non-random, pre-existing differences between classes cannot be excluded as an alternative explanation for the observed between-group differences. Outcomes were post-intervention problem-solving, technical project writing, oral presentation, and collaborative attitude, treated as related professional competency domains, with pre-intervention collaborative attitude as a covariate. Researcher-developed instruments showed acceptable-to-strong validity and reliability evidence. In the primary reduced-model MANCOVA, instructional condition was associated with a significant multivariate difference across the four outcomes (Pillai’s Trace = 0.945, F(4, 41) = 174.88, p < 0.001), and follow-up ANCOVAs indicated higher adjusted scores in the immersive condition across all four outcomes (all p < 0.001). Because the two conditions differed in several coordinated features besides virtual reality, the findings concern the integrated instructional package rather than an isolated virtual reality effect. Given the small, non-randomized, single-institution sample, the results should be read as preliminary evidence from an exploratory comparison of two intact classes rather than as causal evidence of instructional effectiveness.