Virtual humans presented in VR learning environments have been suggested in previous research to increase immersion and further positively influence learning outcomes. However, how virtual human animations affect students’ real-time behavior during VR learning has not yet been investigated. This work examines the effects of social animations (i.e., hand raising of virtual peer learners) on students’ cognitive response and visual attention behavior during immersion in a VR classroom based on eye movement analysis. Our results show that animated peers that are designed to enhance immersion and provide companionship and social information elicit different responses in students (i.e., cognitive, visual attention, and visual search responses), as reflected in various eye movement metrics such as pupil diameter, fixations, saccades, and dwell times. Furthermore, our results show that the effects of animations on students differ significantly between conditions (20%, 35%, 65%, and 80% of virtual peer learners raising their hands). Our research provides a methodological foundation for investigating the effects of avatar animations on users, further suggesting that such effects should be considered by developers when implementing animated virtual humans in VR. Our findings have important implications for future works on the design of more effective, immersive, and authentic VR environments.

With rapid developments in consumer-level head-mounted displays and computer graphics, immersive VR has the potential to take online and remote learning closer to real-world settings. However, the effects of such digital transformations on learners, particularly for VR, have not been evaluated in depth. This work investigates the interaction-related effects of sitting positions of learners, visualization styles of peer-learners and teachers, and hand-raising behaviors of virtual peer-learners on learners in an immersive VR classroom, using eye tracking data. Our results indicate that learners sitting in the back of the virtual classroom may have difficulties extracting information. Additionally, we find indications that learners engage with lectures more efficiently if virtual avatars are visualized with realistic styles. Lastly, we find different eye movement behaviors towards different performance levels of virtual peer-learners, which should be investigated further. Our findings present an important baseline for design decisions for VR classrooms.

Recent developments in computer graphics and hardware technology enable easy access to virtual reality headsets along with integrated eye trackers, leading to mass usage of such devices. The immersive experience provided by virtual reality and the possibility to control environmental factors in virtual setups may soon help to create realistic digital alternatives to conventional classrooms. The importance of such settings has become especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing many schools and universities to provide the digital teaching. Researchers foresee that such transformations will continue in the future with virtual worlds becoming an integral part of education. Until now, however, students' behaviors in immersive virtual environments have not been investigated in depth. In this work, we study students' attention by exploiting object-of-interests using eye tracking in different classroom manipulations. More specifically, we varied sitting positions of students, visualization styles of virtual avatars, and hand-raising percentages of peer-learners. Our empirical evidence shows that such manipulations play an important role in students' attention towards virtual peer-learners, instructors, and lecture material. This research may contribute to understanding of how visual attention relates to social dynamics in the virtual classroom, including significant considerations for the design of virtual learning spaces.