A Pedagogically Driven Approach to Designing Immersive Learning Experiences in Higher Education.

Immersive technologies offer the potential to significantly enhance teaching and learning, but as an emerging technology future use cases are not yet fully realised. Despite becoming more accessible due to technical advances they are still to become mainstream. One reason for this is the difficulty of developing experiences which are of high quality and incorporate pedgological principles in order to be effective. This thesis proposes to develop a pedagogy driven design framework to support educators creating their own learning experiences while leveraging XR’s affordances. A systematic and critical literature review will synthesise research from educational psychology, learning theory, human computer interaction and XR design methodologies. This review will identify limitations and gaps in current practice. Insights from this review will inform the development of XR prototypes which will be used to test the findings. Quantative data will be collected to measure presence, engagement, and usability. Qualitative data will be gathered through observations, interviews, and reflective accounts from participants. Over the duration of the project new devices, techniques and tools that become available will be incorporated. The study will progress through iterative cycles of analysis, design, implementation, and evaluation. This will culminate with a platform agnostic XR evidence based design framework which educators can use to design and develop their own XR learning materials.