Exergames can motivate sedentary individuals to adopt more active lifestyles, and VR implementations offer even greater engagement. However, VR exergames can also induce cybersickness, which may threaten long-term adherence. Since exercise and cybersickness share several physiological symptoms, it remains unclear whether increased exertion contributes to greater discomfort. This study examined whether exercise intensity affects cybersickness during VR cycling. Participants (N=24) completed three fixed-path sessions, each lasting 2.5 minutes, at no, light, and moderate exertion while providing real-time and post-session sickness ratings. No significant differences in cybersickness were observed across conditions. While the modest sample size and short exposure duration limit the strength of the conclusions, these findings suggest that, within short-duration fixed-motion VR cycling, light to moderate physical effort does not substantially alter reported cybersickness. This indicates that exercise intensity could be varied to support improved user outcomes without clear increases in discomfort under similar controlled conditions.

In response to growing global concerns surrounding sedentary lifestyles among adults, the imperative to motivate physical activity has driven the exploration of Virtual Reality (VR) exergames as a promising solution. Personality traits, particularly competitiveness, can play a pivotal role in influencing individuals' motivation to engage in either competitive or non-competitive versions of the same exergame. While existing studies have primarily focused on sports-related competitive orientations, they have overlooked the potential gain in information from gaming-related personality traits. This research addresses this gap by using a modified gaming-related competitiveness questionnaire and evaluating a VR cycling exergame featuring solo, self-competition and virtual opponent cycling conditions in a controlled user study with 38 participants. Empirical findings reveal a notable difference in self-rated competitiveness between the two domains of sports and gaming, and significant correlations between some gamer-types and motivation. These findings highlight the importance of these personality types during exergaming and their potential efficacy for personalisation to increase motivation.

Molecular biology is a demanding subject, requiring students to master abstract, three-dimensional (3D) concepts across a range of spatial scales. Virtual reality (VR) is a medium that excels at portraying scale and 3D concepts, and allows people to have tangible experiences of otherwise intangible subjects. This paper describes Hands-on DNA, a virtual reality learning experience for teaching undergraduate university students about the scale and structure of deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA), a central molecule in molecular biology. The intention of Hands-on DNA is to leverage the advantages of virtual reality against specific challenges faced in teaching molecular biology. We derive design requirements motivated by pedagogy, provide guidelines, and discuss lessons learned during development. Our user study shows that students perceive Hands-on DNA as a fun, engaging, effective learning tool, and that it addresses some of the weaknesses in molecular biology education. Our results also suggest that new interaction techniques to support learning in VR need to be developed (e.g., for note taking) and that the increasing penetration of recreational VR increases students’ expectations and hence the risk of students being disappointed of VR learning tools.