Learner Characteristics and Performance in a First-Person Online Desktop Virtual Environment

This study used a trait/treatment conceptual model with a single-treatment design to examine effects of gender, computer gaming experience, age, and visual skill on learners’ performance and perceptions in an online desktop virtual environment (DVE). Participants were 55 adult students in a sub-baccalaureate surgical technology program. The DVE presented two operating rooms (ORs) and their contents. The DVE was a “first-person” environment in which learners controlled their exploration and navigation and viewed the ORs from their own perspective as if seeing them in the physical world. Results indicated that gender, gaming experience, and age affected the learners’ spatial orientation, perceived confidence, and perceived task difficulty in the DVE, but visual skill did not. Correlations were also found among several of the learner variables. Recommendations are made for both practice and further research.