Constructing Computer-Mediated Feedback in Virtual Reality for Improving Peer Learning: A Synthesis of the Literature in Presentation Research

Abstract

AbstractWhile feedback is frequently emphasized as a crucial principle of presentation courses in higher education, previous studies revealed that teachers outperform peers in terms of impact on students’ development of oral presentation competence. Further, presentation research showed that the lack of quality of peer feedback can be considered as an essential argumentation for the identified differences in effect. Follow-up field experiments demonstrated that Virtual Reality (VR) can be considered as a valuable alternative feedback source for developing public speaking skills, since this technology is able to simulate real-life presentation situations as well as to deliver feedback from the VR system to the individual learner. Recent technological developments allowed to convert quantitative information from VR systems into qualitative feedback messages that directly relate to the standards for high-quality feedback. If students are able to individually interpret the feedback messages without the intervention of a human feedback source, it could enrich the quality of feedback in peer and self-learning and further increase students’ oral presentation competence development. This chapter provides a synthesis of the literature in presentation research with the aim to construct a research agenda on computer-mediated feedback in VR for peer learning in this field. Further, two recent VR experiments in presentation research are discussed with the aim to effectively construct feedback messages in VR for improving peer learning.