he Virtual Playground: an Educational Virtual Reality Environment for Evaluating Interactivity and Conceptual Learning

VE and helped in organizing the overall process of the evaluation. The large-
scale experiment, which took place in 2005, involved a total of fifty (N=50)
children, 25 girls and 25 boys from different schools and socioeconomic
backgrounds, who participated in one of three different conditions, two
experimental VR conditions and a non-VR group.

5.1. Experimental procedure

Each study was conducted with one participant at a time lasting, on average,
90 minutes for each. The experimental methods included direct observation,
interviews and pre- and post-test questionnaires, designed in collaboration
with math teachers. Prior to the main activity, the participant was asked to fill
out a questionnaire with math questions that are based on the fractions
questions found in standardized tests (such as the Key Stage 2 SAT math
test). A user profiling questionnaire was also given at this time. This included
questions that attempted to draw a picture of the child’s familiarity with
computers, frequency of computer game play, and understanding of or prior
experience with virtual reality.

Table 1. Condition attributes and numbers of participants involved.

After the questionnaire was completed, the child was assigned to one of three
experimental conditions; either the non-VR condition or one of two VR
conditions (Table 1). Each child participated in only one of the three
conditions of the study (between-groups design). An even spread according to
aptitude and gender was attempted; however the practical difficulties we
encountered in recruiting the participants (one child at a time had to be

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