Edutainment in the Context of Science Communication in Virtual Reality

As social media becomes increasingly integral to science communication, there is a rising interest in blending education with entertainment to captivate the public. This paper presents the design of a virtual reality (VR) experience that strategically employs engagement strategies such as anticipation, surprise, juiciness, and agency, aimed at enhancing learning within science education. Leveraging the immersive capabilities of VR, the virtual environment seeks to adapt these social media elements to examine their potential in boosting engagement and learning. The VR experience will be used in an experiment featuring a controlled design, varying levels of interaction and sensory feedback to evaluate their influence on participants’ understanding of scientific concepts. By integrating these engaging elements, the experiment anticipates enhancing the educational utility of VR, guiding the development of more effective VR educational tools and broadening the appeal and accessibility of science learning for diverse audiences.