The Use of Virtual Reality in Geo-Education

The paper discussed the technological capabilities of virtual reality (VR) in education as a highly developed form of computer modeling. In order to study the impact of VR technology on the quality of e-learning, an experiment was conducted during an online Physical Geography course. The current research involved 60 third-year students from the Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, and Aldar University College. The respondents were divided into two groups—the first group underwent training through distance learning in the Moodle e-learning system, while the educational process of the second group was supplemented with technological capabilities of the latest VR services (Google Earth, Apple Maps, My Way VR, The VR Museum of Fine Art). During the study, students’ subjective assessment of the training was performed accordingto the basic, expected, and desirable criteria. The examination was carried out in two stages - before and after the course. At the first stage of the assessment, the use of VR corresponded to the desired quality of the educational product. However, after finishing the course and acquiring virtual experience, the students’desired criteria were transferred to the expected ones. This indicated a high degree of adaptability of VR technology in education as well as an increase in the respondents’ requirements for the quality of subsequent academic training. Given this, a significant impact of immersive technology’s evolution on the demands on the e-learning quality can be noted.