The Future of Education

In this paper we describe the further research to enhance user cognition in e-learning scenarios with 3D web-technologies. This investigation is based on the previous findings with our research partner Bosch, which has been presented at Future of Education 2015 [1]. Our test framework has been extended to combine the powerful API WebGL on mobile phones with head-mounted displays. This technological setup has been recently described in public projects such as Googles Cardboard and Oculus Rift to generate a higher degree of immersion [2]. Compared to native VR applications (e.g. frameworks presented by Shailey and Hardy [3]) this web-based approach is accessible on any browsers without proprietary software or plugin. In the context of e-learning we assembled a browser-based user manual to affect user’s perception in a surrounding virtual world. To evaluate the correlation between user cognition and technological dependencies we compared the WebGL-based visualization of monoscopic and stereoscopic views on head-mounted mobile phones. The A/B-test has been designed for a quantiative, empirical study to gather parameters of interaction, performance and visual quality. In summary the following results have been obtained:

1) The surrounding, stereoscopic view supports user's cognitive performance.

2) The interaction mechanismns are appropriate for panoramic views only.

3) The visual quality and size of viewport is limited in stereoscopic view.

4) The performance is negative affected in stereoscopic view.

These results complements WebGL as a cross-plattform standard for 3D visualization - available on any browser without proprietary plugin - and support decision makers and developers in further Web-based VR e-learning applications with WebGL.