I do and I understand: A virtual reality-supported collaborative design-assessing activity for EFL students

Instead of learning in a passive learning mode or aimlessly exploring VR scenarios, a collaborative design-based VR learning environment has great potential for developing classrooms. Through personal knowledge construction in a collaborative design-based learning (CDBL) environment, this study combines CDBL and VR technology to motivate students to build VR projects and practice speaking English in rich contexts through learning by design; students gradually generate knowledge from design experience and sufficient practice. Peer assessment was further introduced to enhance timely evaluation and reflection. Therefore, this study proposed a VR-supported collaborative design-assessing activity. 113 Chinese seventh-graders participated in a quasi-experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of this method. Compared to the collaborative design-assessing (CDA) activity, the results demonstrated that students in the VR-supported collaborative design-assessing (VR-CDA) activity greatly enhanced their English-speaking performance, collaboration tendency, and critical thinking awareness while lowering their English learning anxiety. In contrast to the VR-supported collaborative design (VR-CD) activity, however, the VR-CDA group activity did not significantly improve students' English-speaking performance. The interview results proved that the students in the VR-CDA group were highly motivated to learn English because of the innovative classroom instruction. They also enjoyed designing the projects collaboratively, posting assessments, and self-reflection.