Key Terms

Virtual Reality

“A medium composed of interactive computer simulations that sense the participant’s position and actions and replace or augment the feedback to one or more senses, giving the feeling
of being mentally immersed or present in the simulation (a virtual world)” (Sherman & Craig 2019, p. 16)

360° Media

Spherical images/films created with an omnidirectional camera that suggest spatiality by presenting multiple viewing angles simultaneously (Eisenlauer 2020)

Distinguishing Virtual Reality and 360° Media

Although both 360° media and VR systems can be accessed with head-mounted displays and afford mental and physical immersions, they differ in the materiality of the employed signs,
in the interactivity of the delivered content as well as in varying degrees of agency perceived by the users.

	VR Systems	360° media
Materiality	Constructed animations Based on computer graphics and real-time rendering	Captured physical world events  Based on photo, film and audio
Interactivity	Full-body experiences cf. walking around, grabbing things Collaboration with others via and within VR	Visual and aural experiences, listening and looking around  Interactive experiences via hotspots
Agency	Using the whole body to transform intentions into actions	Deciding where to look next

Virtual Reality Enhanced Learning

texttexttexttexttexttexttexttexttext