Extended Reality in Information Systems Education - Analyzing Technology Readiness Levels

Extended Reality (XR) and its associated domains, Virtual (VR), Augmented (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) technologies provide cutting-edge technological affordances in emerging learning environments. Information Systems Education (ISE) key activities are teaching and training. Teaching activities involve conceptual understanding whereas training activities consider practical applications and their implementation. To investigate the impact of XR in ISE, it is important to contextualize the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of applications within the educational ecosystem. The progression from initial ideas (TRL-0) to full commercial applications (TRL-9) will provide widespread acceptance and affordability of XR applications in ISE. A deeper understanding of that progression will indicate the emergence of a new teaching and training paradigm within ISE. It will also reduce the gap between conceptual understanding and practical implementation which is prevalent within ISE. Hence, the aim of this study is to comprehend the TRLs of XR applications within ISE. For this, a systematic review of literature in the Association for Information Systems - eLibrary database was conducted on the articles published between 2014 and 2024 using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method. A total set of 114 articles was coded into a spreadsheet and subsequently analysed using the spreadsheet slicer functionality. The outcome of the analysis shed insights into the type of XR applications used in IS Education, their TRLs, distribution of articles over time, research methods and the theoretical foundation of studies. The preliminary results reveal that VR applications are widely used in IS Education with TRL- 2 followed by TRLs 4 and 1. The distribution of articles saw a steady progression in recent years. Whereas systematic literature review was a predominant method used in many articles to understand the implications of XR applications in ISE. Due to the rapid advancement in spatial computing and the emergence of the metaverse, periodic reviews will be essential for a comprehensive understanding of TRLs of ISE applications.