Abstract

The development of the modern immersive learning technologies, especially the VR systems to study and educate about aquatic ecosystems, is somewhat radical. The study is devoted to the UVR experience targeted at learners, which is postulated to enhance educational achievement by means of exploration and experience with real underwater environments. There is no need to be physically present in an aquatic ecosystem since this system provides the learners with the freedom to rotate and observe aquatic environments in 3D through various angles in an immersive VR learning system, which is meant to be both educational and motivational. These systems are critical to ensuring that the learners develop knowledge on high-level concepts on architecture and geography of complex underwater systems, multi-layered marine ecosystems, corals, and water pollution dynamics. This study outlines the procedure of designing such systems of UVR, their application in ocean awareness and community of K-12 education, among other marine biological aspects. The potential broad value of such innovations and their incorporation into advocacy is to enhance the purposeful skills, including environmental and ocean literacy, to deal with the marine ecosystems. Findings of this paper show that the VR-based learning has a significant positive effect on student interest in the process of learning, comprehending, and remembering the basics of the environment. This new mode of teaching and learning gives immersion instead of the bare traditional classroom teaching model and facilitates concept teaching and learning at a more in-depth level. VR can also provoke a proactive engagement in the augmentation of concern about the environment; it is not limited to the promotion of knowledge. UVR application in the school structures, and with the help of outreach programs, can significantly increase the availability of nautical education that would in turn widen the knowledge and appreciation toward the environment and active protection by the successor generation.

Keywords: Virtual reality, Underwater virtual reality, Education, Aquatic ecosystem, Immersive learning