Use of VR in Higher Education: A Systematic Review (2014-2023)

With the ongoing advancement of intelligent information technology, virtual reality (VR) higher education, during this new era of reform, the incorporation of VR technology has led to an evolution of teaching methods. VR technology has been integrated into education and teaching, for example through virtual laboratories, digital environments and simulation-based training, thus providing higher education institutions with diverse teaching approaches and developmental opportunities.This study systematically categorises the utilisation of VR technology in tertiary education through the analysis of two databases, Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus.The systematic review process was conducted by referring to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items forSystematic Review and Meta-Analyses) as a guide, and 29 articles were extracted from the 478 articles for the period 2014 to 2023, taking into account exclusion and inclusion criteria.Firstly, the review revealed significant benefits of using VR applications in higher education, which were categorised into three categories. Secondly, the review examined challenges related to the use of VR in higher education content and categorised them into five categories.Overall, this review consolidates research discoveries and pragmatic insights to offer a refined comprehension of the present condition of VR in advanced education. Moreover, it provides recommendations for future development, which holds significant value for the effective use of VR technology in higher education.


Introduction
VR virtual reality technology encompasses system simulation, sensing, big data network information technology, and graphics, delivering significant practical benefits.When applied to higher education, teaching design, experimental analysis and professional skills training, it plays a crucial supporting and promotional role.According to (Rajendran & Yunus, 2021), the Chinese examination-oriented culture has such serious backwash effects on its learners that they are often characterized as passive consumers rather than.This paper aims to comprehensively analyse and explore the practical application of VR virtual reality technology Vol 13, Issue 1, (2024) E-ISSN: 2226-6348 in higher education.It will examine the advantages and characteristics of this technology and make practical attempts to further expand its application within higher education.
The following general questions guided the process of analysing the following literature Question 1: Benefits of VR Applications in Higher Education?Question 2: Challenges of using VR in higher education?By dealing with these questions, this study hopes to support the evolution of teaching and learning strategies and methodologies, and provide insights and recommendations for the use of VR in higher education.

Characteristics and application status of VR virtual reality technology
VR technology is primarily founded on computer simulation, artificial intelligence, big data, sensing, and system simulation.Essentially, virtual reality (VR) technology utilizes people's sensory organs such as vision, hearing, and touch, by means of virtual image and sound processing, to create a highly simulated virtual environment that immerses people within it.(DeBack& Louwerse,2020)Virtual reality technology possesses features of immersion, interactivity, and imagination.The present utilisation of VR technology in higher education is mainly centred around "human-computer interaction" (Albus & Seufert, 2021).In the case of COVID-19, large-scale of changes happened overnight to find ways to optimise distance education and virtual learning was emerging and evolving quickly Educators were forced to adapt to the rapid changes in the education system (Santhanasamy & Yunus, 2022)

Methods
The systematic review process was conducted by referring to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items forSystematic Review and Meta-Analyses) as a guide.As shown in Figure 1.The first step is to select four suitable databases (Web of Science (WoS), Scopus) Table 1 below shows the search strings used for each database in this study.

Database KeywordUsed
Scopus TITLE-ABS-KEY(("VR" OR "Virtual Reality*" OR "Immersive Technology" OR "VR technology " ) AND ( "Higher Education*" OR "tertiary education" OR "Higher Learning*" OR "post-secondary" OR " postsecondary" OR "University Education" OR "Academic Education" OR "Advanced Education" OR "College-Level Education")AND ("appliance*" OR "use*" OR "Technical Applications*" ) AND ("benefit*" OR "Advantage*")) Web of Science TS =("VR" OR "Virtual Reality*" OR "Immersive Technology" OR "VR technology " AND "Higher Education*" OR "tertiary education" OR "Higher Learning*" OR "post-secondary" OR " postsecondary" OR "University Education" OR "Academic Education" OR "Advanced Education" OR "College-Level Education" AND "appliance*" OR "use*" OR "Technical Applications*" AND "benefit*" OR "Advantage*") *: Search String 2. Screening The first step was to remove duplicate articles (13 in total) and 465 articles were eligible for further screening.The 465 articles were screened based on title, abstract and keywords with the aim of making them relevant to virtual reality and higher education.
The search results of the selected databases showed that before 2014, relevant articles were very sparse and not clearly oriented,there are not many systematic reviews before 2014.Therefore, 2014 to 2023 was used as one of the inclusion criteria.

Table 2 Screening condition
After careful screening based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, 29 articles were potentially included in this systematic review.Although conference proceedings and book chapters were reviewed, they were excluded because they were not comprehensive enough.

Included
The articles reviewed in this systematic review are centred around "Virtual Reality Technology in Higher Education".as shown in Table 3, 16 articles were selected from Scopus and 13 articles from WoS.

Literature type
Articles from journals Systematic reviews, books, chapters in a book, conference proceedings

English
Non-English

Related to Use of VR in Higher Education
Not related to Use of VR in Higher Education

Wos
The study looked at how children, ages 12 to 13, learned important ideas in nanoscale cell biology when they added haptic input to a 3D virtual reality (VR) simulation.
Students (N = 64), in two secondary schools Pre-and post-test results on conceptual knowledge revealed considerable knowledge gains; however, the addition of haptic input had no discernible impact on the knowledge gains.The research made it possible to identify crucial factors to take into account while creating and utilising haptic-enabled 3D virtual reality settings for group education.

Data Analysis Procedure
All selected articles are exported to the reference software Mendeley.matic analysis was performed .
research questions: Question 1: Benefits of VR Applications in Higher Education?Question 2: Challenges of using VR in higher education?This review provides an interpretative analysis of the articles and categorises the topics in response to the re-search question According to the first research question, the advantageous features that VR technology has in higher education were classified into three categories.For the Question 2, the challenges of VR technology in higher education mentioned in the article are explained in five sections, according to which the difficulties encountered in the current use of VR technology in higher education classes and experiments are analysed.
In this systematic review, VR technology in higher education has the following five challenges Table 5 Challenges of using virtual reality in higher education Type Related articles Limited space for practical training and teaching [ 6,13,28 ] the high price of practical training equipment [ 2,29 ] the updating speed of the equipment cannot keep up with the rapid development of science and technology [ 2,[9][10][11][12][13]29 ] the danger of operating the equipment [ 2,4 ] Insufficient investment in experimental teaching [3][4][5][12][13][14][15][16] First, the limited space for practical training and teaching, as well as the excessive size of the practical training equipment, leads to the fact that only students in the vicinity of the equipment can observe the whole process of the teacher's operation of the equipment in close proximity, while other students can only look at the whole practical training process and lack a comprehensive understanding.[ 6,13,28 ] Second, the price of practical training equipment remains high, which makes it very difficult to solve the financial problems of equipment configuration.At the same time, the complex structure of the equipment requires specialised personnel to operate, manage and maintain it, which brings additional high expenses.[ 2,29 ] Thirdly, The high cost of practical training equipment means that equipment updates too slowly to keep up with the speed at which science and technology are developing.Schools must spend a lot of money to keep its equipment up to date with technology, and upgrading the outdated equipment will be a huge waste of funds.. [ 2,[9][10][11][12][13]29 ] Fourthly, for students who lack practical experience, it is dangerous to operate the equipment.Usually, the teaching process is based on the teacher's demonstration, and students can only simply imitate and lack the opportunity to explore on their own, thus reducing the effectiveness of the experiment.[ 2,4 ] Fifthly, some majors of liberal arts nature have not invested enough in experimental teaching, for example, finance and management majors are more inclined to teach mainly language, with relatively few experimental opportunities.As for students majoring in tourism, experiments usually require field trips, but the high cost has become an important factor restricting students' participation in practical activities.[3][4][5][12][13][14][15][16]

Discussion
The results of the study highlight the use of VR technology in higher education, and in general, the findings suggest that the use of VR technology contributes to higher education.The benefits include：(i) Immersion；(ii) Interactivity；(iii) Conceptualisation It is likely that VR technology will be used on a larger scale in higher education in the future, linking VR technology and higher education more closely.Innovate the methods, actively introduce, apply VR technology to improve the teaching ability of education and provide the most convenient way to cultivate talents.
Next, this review also explores Challenges of using VR in higher education , the reasons are summarised into five points, including：(i) Limited space for practical training and teaching；(ii) the high price of practical training equipment；(iii) the updating speed of the equipment cannot keep up with the rapid development of science and technology；(iv) the danger of operating the equipment；(v) Insufficient investment in experimental teaching The first and second reasons are the problems faced by most of the higher education schools, and the updating of funds and technology is also the focus and difficulty of using VR technology in higher education.
With the ubiquitous nature of social media, many educators are coming to see this technology as an avenue to make learning more accessible to their students.(John&Yunus,2021)ApplyingVR technology to actual teaching has high requirements for capital investment, technology, equipment and teachers.Whether it is the pressure of capital, technology or teaching, these are the great challenges and difficulties encountered in the actual application of VR technology, which need to be constantly practiced and explored.

Conclusions
This paper reviews the literature on the application of VR technology in higher education.Thus,to support the evolution of teaching strategies and methods, and to provide insights and recommendations for the use of VR in higher education.filling the gap left by the lack of a comprehensive review of VR and higher education.Two databases, web ofScience (Wos) and scopus, were used in this review, which included 29 articles.
Question 1: Benefits of VR Applications in Higher Education (i) Immersion；(ii) Interactivity；(iii) Conceptualisation Virtual environments can create a sense of reality, and users are fully immersed in them, greatly improving students' motivation to learn.The human-computer interaction in VR virtual reality system is close to the natural experience.This technology makes asynchronous instruction possible and can be tailored to the individual needs of students.At the same time, VR is a design tool and a display medium that improves to the ideal state of digital technology, thus significantly improving the efficiency and level of planning and design.
Question 2: Challenges of using virtual reality in higher education (i) Limited space for practical training and teaching；(ii) the high price of practical training equipment；(iii) the updating speed of the equipment cannot keep up with the rapid development of science and technology；(iv) the danger of operating the equipment；(v) Insufficient investment in experimental teaching Through the above two questions, this paper comprehensively analyzes and discusses the practical application of VR virtual reality technology in higher education.Study the advantages and characteristics of VR technology, and make practical attempts to further expand its application in higher education, and realize the goal and pursuit of applying VR technology in college classrooms faster and better.
According to the findings of this review, there are more opportunities for the application of virtual reality technology in higher education.
There are several restrictions on this study.There is no mention of education level as a trend in this study because the majority of studies on the use of VR technology in higher education have concentrated on undergraduate students at universities and colleges.This restriction undoubtedly creates new avenues for investigation in the future, particularly with regard to the selection of several study tiers about the application of VR technology in higher education.Second, Web of Science and Scopus are reputable journals from which the papers in this review are drawn.As a result, if additional databases like Google Scholar and Science Direct are employed, the outcomes could alter slightly.Notwithstanding its shortcomings, this systematic review contributes significantly to the body of knowledge about VR technology in higher education, helping practitioners in related domains and opening up new avenues for investigation.In order to fully realise the application and development of VR technology in higher education, this review also closes any gaps about the advantages and disadvantages of the technology.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.PRISMA systematic review adapted from

Table 4
Benefits of VR Applications in Higher Education