The increasing integration of immersive digital tools in higher education, such as Virtual Reality (VR), presents new possibilities for experiential and student-centered learning. VR learning environments, such as laboratories, are often part of Extended Reality (XR) ecosystems and allow students to engage with complex experiments in safe, scalable, and flexible ways. While VR technologies offer significant educational potential, student satisfaction in using them for learning is critical in determining how effectively these environments support meaningful educational outcomes. Higher satisfaction levels are closely associated with greater student engagement, which can enhance learning outcomes and promote sustained use of immersive learning tools. However, student satisfaction with these technologies depends not only on technical design but on how effectively these environments support students' psychological and motivational needs. PURPOSE Maintaining motivation becomes especially important in immersive environments like VR labs, where students often work independently and without real-time instructor or peer interaction. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) (Deci & Ryan, 1985) offers a relevant and well-established framework to understand how these environments meet learners' psychological needs and influence satisfaction. SDT identifies three fundamental psychological needs that drive motivation and satisfaction: autonomy (the need for self-direction), competence (the need to feel effective and capable), and relatedness (the need for social connection). Because VR laboratories emphasize self-paced exploration and skill-building, SDT provides a valuable lens to evaluate whether these environments support the psychological conditions necessary for meaningful engagement and practical learning. While SDT has been widely used in traditional and online learning contexts, its application to immersive VR settings remains limited. This chapter applies SDT post hoc to interpret student satisfaction data from a biomedical engineering VR course and generate design implications for future immersive learning environments. This study aims to investigate how undergraduate students in a biomedical engineering course experienced learning in a VR laboratory setting, and to identify the factors influencing their satisfaction. Our guiding research questions are: 1. What factors influenced student satisfaction with the administered VR laboratory modules? 2. How do these factors relate to the core psychological needs outlined in Self-Determination Theory (autonomy, competence, and relatedness)? APPROACH: This study draws upon a mixed-methods approach in which undergraduate engineering students participated in five VR laboratory simulations provided through the Labster platform. The study was conducted in Fall 2022 with 41 second-year biomedical engineering students at a public R1 research university in the U.S. The VR modules covered critical topics such as cell culture, gene editing, and molecular biology techniques. Data was collected via a post-intervention questionnaire combining Likert-scale items measuring student satisfaction and open-ended qualitative questions exploring students’ perceptions of the VR learning experience. We used an inductive thematic analysis approach to code qualitative responses, allowing themes to be generated from the data through researchers' observations and reflections. It is important to note that SDT was not used to guide the study's design but was introduced later as an interpretive framework to organize and deepen our understanding of the observed themes. Quantitative survey results were analyzed using descriptive statistics to identify general trends in student satisfaction. This dual approach gave a comprehensive understanding of how VR laboratories address students’ psychological needs. Since the course aimed to build foundational conceptual knowledge and lab readiness, understanding satisfaction helps improve alignment between pedagogical goals and student experience, particularly in technology-rich, hybrid science curricula. ACTUAL OUTCOMES: Preliminary analysis indicated that VR laboratories significantly supported students' autonomy by allowing self-directed exploration and independent decision-making within structured simulations. Competence was also fostered, with students reporting heightened mastery over complex scientific concepts and procedures after engaging with the VR environments. However, relatedness emerged as a more challenging aspect; while some students appreciated the immersive individual experience, others noted a lack of peer interaction and a sense of social isolation. Satisfaction was generally high when VR experiences were perceived as directly relevant to course objectives, offered meaningful feedback, and provided intuitive, accessible technological design. These findings suggest that enhancing the social dimensions of VR laboratories—potentially through AI-supported collaborative features—could further improve psychological need satisfaction and student engagement. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that while VR labs strongly support autonomy and competence, their capacity to foster relatedness is less consistent. As VR learning environments become more common, especially in STEM education, designers must intentionally support all three SDT needs to ensure sustained engagement and satisfaction. Simply offering innovative platforms such as VR is insufficient; these environments must be deliberately structured to support learners' autonomy, competence, and relatedness, whether through virtual collaboration, AI-enhanced feedback, or integrated community-building features. As higher education continue to adopt digital technologies, applying motivational frameworks like Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is essential to ensure that learning remains student-centered, by honoring learners’ autonomy and engagement; inclusive, by supporting diverse identities, abilities, and experiences; ethically grounded, by promoting transparency, care, and responsible design in educational technologies; and sustainable, by fostering long-term motivation, adaptability, and well-being in an ever-evolving digital landscape.