“Situational Learning in Real and Virtual Space: Lessons Learned and Future Directions” by Harrington

This work started with the informal observation of my daughter as she actively inquired about her world around her. Her seemingly innocent questions have profound implications for real time science education. How could these common daily experiences of information seeking behavior be supported or augmented, and transferred to a virtual or augmented reality application for education and knowledge acquisition? How to make it effective? What research has been done? This paper highlights key educational research and reviews important empirical findings from science education implemented in virtual reality and other computer graphics technologies. Based on recent literature and user interface design experience a list of design heuristics and recommendations are offered as guidelines to virtual reality educators and software developers. Lastly, there is a summary of future research opportunities and challenges.