Children's evaluation of a virtual reality boating safety education resource

Research on designing and using immersive virtual reality with children for educative purposes is an emerging field. It is important to deploy participatory design techniques to highlight the perspectives of children so that the design of content, characters, interactive elements and narrative resonate with young learners. This paper reports on an evaluation of a proof-of-concept 360-degree learning resource designed to educate children about boating safety. The resource was developed as part of a government service safety initiative to be integrated into a short in-school boating safety session facilitated by maritime safety officers. A mixed methodology was used during a focus group with primary (elementary) school aged children. Findings were that children wanted to experience the learning resource via a virtual reality headset with their Systems Usability Scale results being positive. However, most had difficulty adjusting the headset for visual clarity and a minority managed to experience all 360-degree scenes and their embedded content. Children enjoyed the interactive nature of the resource, felt transported to the boating location and liked human and animated characters in the story. The evaluation was useful in clarifying aspects of the learning resource that were valued by children and it raised questions about whether the resource might best be used during the short in-school boating safety sessions in computer or mobile device screen mode rather than via a virtual reality headset.