Perceived Presence, Fidelity, Immersion and Usability in an Immersive Virtual Reality Learning Object: A Cross-Sectional Study with Higher-Education Students in a Future Classroom Environment

Abstract

Immersive virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used in higher education, yet evidence on how perceived presence, fidelity, immersion and usability co-occur in authentic learning objects—and how they relate to prior experience and gender—remains limited. This cross-sectional study examines these four perceptual dimensions in 250 undergraduate students of Early Childhood and Primary Education at the University of Seville immediately after interacting with an immersive VR learning object built around the Future Classroom model. All variables are self-reported perceptions collected at a single post-experience time point; no learning outcomes were assessed. Data were collected with the Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ), a fidelity–immersion scale and the System Usability Scale (SUS). Reliability was high across instruments (α = 0.881–0.931). Students reported moderate-to-high presence, realism, fidelity and immersion, and a notable usability score (SUS = 71.18). Presence, fidelity and immersion correlated strongly and positively, although their conceptual proximity and the shared measurement method preclude treating these associations as evidence of empirically distinct constructs. Associations with usability were weak and heterogeneous. Gender differences were absent except for involvement, an isolated result reported as exploratory. Prior experience with VR and with head-mounted displays was associated with differences in the ratings, with small effect sizes and a non-monotonic pattern: the intermediate-experience group scored lowest, whereas the low- and high-experience groups did not differ significantly from one another. The study characterises students’ perceived experience of an immersive VR learning object; it does not test its effects on learning.