Motivation to Learn in Immersive Web Environments: Pilot Study

The article describes a pilot study conducted with elementary school students (8th grade) of a public school. The study was conducted in the classroom for three weeks (one time, fifty minutes, per week). The students conceptualized an online classroom, to learn a programmatic content, chosen by them. During the sessions, the students imagined, thought and designed the room, which they would later model and in which they had classes. However, due to some problems (which are addressed in the article), the students did not model the room, so in the use phase, it was necessary to use one, that was already created. Two surveys were applied per questionnaire. The results demonstrated the need to reformulate the schedule for the fieldwork that is intended to be developed in the future, as well as to readjust some of the instruments and data collection techniques built. The familiarity of students with the concept of Immersive Web Environments (IWE) is limited, although they recognize the educational potential of these environments. Most students have a consumer attitude, which is reflected in the difficulty in imagining school and the classroom in these contexts. Despite this and inspired by the examples that the teacher presented, the students drew creative scenarios of unconventional classrooms. The results demonstrate a positive impact on students’ motivation and indicate that if students had an active participation in creating the environment, motivation to learn could increase.