Enhancing local heritage learning in primary education through virtual reality

1 Introduction

Cultural heritage, understood as the set of material and immaterial assets that shape a community’s collective memory, plays a central role in identity construction, sense of belonging, and social cohesion (Maraña and Revert-Roldán, 2020). Furthermore, cultural heritage also constitutes a strategic resource for regional development and competitiveness, generating employment and revenue through tourism and cultural industries. All of this reinforces the relevance of educational approaches that foster meaningful engagement with local heritage from an early age (Bujdosó et al., 2015; Guillén‐Peñafiel et al., 2021). Working with local heritage in the primary education classroom is thus essential, since it makes it possible to connect students’ personal experiences with the historical and cultural processes that have molded their surroundings, thereby fostering more meaningful and contextually grounded learning (Marqués-Valea et al., 2020).

However, heritage teaching in primary education has traditionally relied on expository methods centered on the transmission of information and the memorization of dates, places, or monuments. This limits the development of a deeper and more critical understanding of heritage as a social and cultural phenomenon (Achille and Fiorillo, 2022). In response, educational research has increasingly called for approaches that are more experiential, participatory, and emotionally engaging, with emerging technologies offering unprecedented pedagogical opportunities in this regard (Vásquez-Bravo, 2022). In this context, the integration of Extended Reality technologies is revolutionizing experiential learning by allowing students to transcend traditional barriers. These tools facilitate immersion in dynamic simulations and complex scientific visualizations that increase engagement and retention, while enabling the practice of practical skills in safe, risk-free environments. By enhancing each stage of Kolb’s learning cycle, from concrete experience to active experimentation, these technologies ensure that knowledge becomes more tangible, inclusive, and deeply meaningful (Crogman et al., 2025). Among these technologies, Virtual Reality (VR) stands out for its capacity to generate immersive three-dimensional environments that allow students to symbolically enter cultural or historical scenarios and engage with content in more active and meaningful ways.

Recent studies have shown that VR can produce differentiated affective and behavioral responses depending on the type of experience and the educational level of the users, highlighting the importance of adapting immersive environments to students’ developmental and emotional characteristics (Portuguez-Castro and Santos Garduño, 2024). In educational settings, VR has been associated with meaningful learning, increased motivation, and higher levels of student engagement (Rodríguez, 2024). Immersive environments may also intensify emotional involvement by eliciting curiosity, surprise, and enthusiasm, all of which can strengthen commitment to the learning task (Corrales et al., 2024). In fact, interactive VR enhances learning outcomes through increased presence and perceived enjoyment, promoting digital transformation and the enhancement of intelligence in education (Yang et al., 2023). When these environments are combined with gamified strategies, their motivational potential may become even more pronounced. In this sense, VR is particularly valuable for implementing active methodologies in which students do not simply receive information, but construct knowledge through exploration, interaction, and contextualized problem solving (Merchán et al., 2022). Gamification can further enrich these experiences by introducing challenge, participation, and personal satisfaction while also supporting social, emotional, and digital skills (Zeng et al., 2024).

In addition to these motivational benefits, VR can extend learning beyond the physical classroom by creating immersive environments that make complex, distant, or abstract topics more accessible and interactive. This is especially relevant in Social Sciences, where immersive 360° experiences can support the exploration of historical and cultural content, although empirical studies grounded in specific educational designs remain limited (Achille and Fiorillo, 2022). Accordingly, VR should be understood not only as an educational resource, but also as part of a broader immersive learning ecology that can reshape how students access, interpret, and construct knowledge (Hwang et al., 2023; Islas‐Carmona et al., 2024). In this regard, higher levels of technological integration within educational institutions have been shown to lead to greater efficiency and improved decision-making, with VR emerging as the most effective educational technology for these purposes (Emmanuel, 2024; Aigaje, 2024). In heritage education, it enables students to engage with both past and present contexts, facilitating the exploration of historical scenarios and the reinterpretation of their immediate environment through situated and interactive digital experiences (Ayuso del Puerto et al., 2022; Maquilón et al., 2017). Its integration into the classroom is consistent with current curricular requirements and digital competence frameworks, which emphasize the need to equip students with tools to navigate technological environments critically (Schnyder et al., 2025). From this perspective, VR should not be regarded merely as an innovative resource, but as a medium that can transform students’ relationship with knowledge by promoting autonomy, digital literacy, and critical thinking (Laine et al., 2023).

A gender-inclusive approach is also particularly relevant in heritage education, as traditional historical narratives have often marginalized women’s contributions. Addressing this imbalance is not only a matter of epistemic justice, but also a way of fostering a more inclusive and critical understanding of the past (Ballesteros-Colino, 2020; Sepúlveda, 2022; Ortega-Sánchez, 2022; Cambil et al., 2022). In this regard, immersive environments have the potential to broaden the representational scope of heritage education, by enabling historical figures who are underrepresented in pupils’ learning experiences to be included in a more visual and interactive way, thereby giving them greater visibility (Díez-Bedmar, 2020).

Despite growing interest in these possibilities, empirical evidence on the use of VR for local heritage education in primary school remains limited, especially in context-specific interventions that combine knowledge acquisition with students’ perceptions of engagement, immersion, and usability. Within this framework, this study examines the potential of VR to support local heritage learning in primary education through the design and implementation of a virtual museum about the city of Badajoz. Developed using the Delightex platform (Delightex, 2026), the immersive environment was structured around three thematic areas: History, Monuments, and Historical Figures, and combined 360° imagery, narrated content, and gamified activities. The aim was not only to improve content learning, but also to stimulate students’ interest in their cultural environment and to explore more engaging, inclusive, and contextually grounded forms of teaching (Jiménez-Palacios and Cuenca-López, 2021; Sakr and Abdullah, 2024).

The general aim of the study was to assess the feasibility of implementing this immersive experience in real school settings, with particular attention to technological accessibility, tool usability, and curricular integration. More specifically, the study pursued four objectives (SO1) to examine the impact of VR on students’ motivation to learn local history and local heritage (SO2) to explore students’ prior familiarity with VR tools in school contexts (SO3) to analyze the effectiveness of immersive VR learning for acquiring knowledge about Badajoz’s historical and cultural heritage; and (SO4) to examine whether school grade and gender influenced students’ perceptions of the VR experience.

2 Methodology

2.1 Design

This study adopted a quantitative, descriptive, quasi-experimental design. One of the instruments was administered using a pretest–posttest design, whereas the other was applied only after the intervention. In both cases, no control group was included (Acosta, 2023). The study was conducted in a primary school context, which made it possible to examine the phenomenon from an empirical perspective and to gather evidence of changes in students’ learning after participating in an immersive experience.

The study was organized into three phases: (1) the design of the virtual experience with local heritage content; (2) the implementation of the proposal in the classroom with teacher support and specific technological resources; and (3) the analysis of quantitative data collected before and after the intervention.

The activity was designed to teach contents of History and Heritage, included in the section of the Primary Education Curriculum devoted to Social Sciences. It consisted of the creation and implementation of a virtual museum about the city of Badajoz, developed using the Delightex platform, which enables the design of immersive 3D spaces that can be accessed through VR headsets or screen-based visualization.

The virtual museum was structured around three thematic rooms. The first room, History, presents nine images of different historical locations in Badajoz (Figure 1). By clicking on each image, students are transported to a 360° environment associated with that site (Figure 2), where they receive a short narrative explaining a specific stage in the city’s history and complete an interactive activity related to the content (Figure 3). These scenes were designed to cover different periods in the historical development of Badajoz, from the earliest human settlements to the contemporary city.

The second room, Monuments, allows students to interact with nine pictographic representations of key monuments in Badajoz (Figure 4). Each pictograph leads to a 360° view of the monument, accompanied by an explanation of its historical background and relevance. In addition, each monument includes a complementary activity intended to reinforce learning through interaction with the virtual environment (Figure 5).

The third room, Historical Figures, includes three interactive buttons that lead to a virtual roller-coaster-like experience (Figures 6, 7). Throughout the journey, students encounter significant historical figures from Badajoz, including both men and women, thereby highlighting the contribution of female figures who have often been underrepresented in traditional historical accounts. The narrative emphasizes their role in the city’s history and culture, and the experience concludes with an interactive game linked to the content presented.

Each room incorporates multimedia elements, including 360° panoramic images, explanatory audio adapted to the students’ educational level, and mini-games (Figures 1–4,7). Students accessed the experience either through Meta Quest 2 VR headsets in a classroom equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity (Figures 8, 9), or through their own devices using 360° navigation mode. Meta Quest headsets have gradually begun to be integrated as educational resources in public schools in Extremadura, within the framework of educational digitalization initiatives promoted by the regional government (Vaquera, 2024).

The design of the virtual experience followed an instructional design process oriented towards primary-age learners, combining principles of narrative sequencing, spatial exploration, and gamified interaction. Each thematic room was structured around a consistent three-step interaction pattern: a visual entry point (an image or pictograph), an immersive 360° scene with narrated content, and a closing interactive activity, so that every learning unit combined exposure, immersion, and active response within a single cycle. The narrative across rooms was organized to follow a scaffolding logic: the History room presented content chronologically, from early settlements to the contemporary city; the Monuments room addressed key heritage sites thematically, building on the historical context introduced previously; and the Historical Figures room closed the experience biographically, situating individual figures within the historical and monumental framework already explored. Visual design followed principles of clarity and reduced cognitive load appropriate for children aged nine to 12: high-contrast pictographic icons, brief narrated audio segments adapted to primary-level vocabulary, a consistent color-coding scheme to differentiate rooms, and simplified single-tap interaction points to minimize the technical burden associated with headset and controller use. This approach aimed to ensure that the immersive medium itself did not become an obstacle to engagement with the heritage content but instead functioned as a scaffold that guided attention and supported meaning-making throughout the experience.

It is important to distinguish between the immersive dimension of the experience, provided by the 360° VR environment, and its gamified dimension, which operates as an independent design layer. Each thematic room concluded with a challenge-based activity designed to check content comprehension rather than merely deliver information: for example, in the History room, students completed an excavation-style activity after each 360° scene (Figure 3); the Monuments room included a complementary comprehension activity for each site (Figure 5); and the Historical Figures room closed with an interactive game linked to the historical content presented during the roller-coaster sequence (Figures 6, 7). These challenge-based mini-games constituted the gamified layer of the experience and were designed to reinforce content retention independently of the sense of presence generated by the 360° immersion itself.

2.2 Participants

The sample consisted of students in the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades of primary education from two public schools in the city of Badajoz. Out of a total of 39 schools in the city, the participating institutions represented 5.13% of the available schools. Participants were selected through non-probability convenience sampling, based on their willingness to participate, access to technological resources, and the presence of teaching staff receptive to the use of emerging technologies. In total, 105 students aged between 9 and 12 years took part in the study (Tables 1, 2).

TABLE 1. Gender distribution of the sample by school.

Own elaboration.

TABLE 2. Grade distribution of the sample by school.

Own elaboration.

The selection of participants was closely tied to the pedagogical and technical requirements of the immersive design. Fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students were chosen because content on local history and heritage within the “Knowledge of Natural, Social, and Cultural Environment” subject is specifically addressed at these grade levels under the regional curriculum (Decreto 151/2022), ensuring curricular alignment between the intervention and students’ ongoing coursework. This age range (9–12 years) was also considered developmentally appropriate for the interaction demands of the environment: at this stage, students can typically follow multi-step interactive narratives and manage simple controller-based actions with a degree of autonomy, while still benefiting from the concrete, exploratory forms of engagement that VR affords.

Ethical principles for educational research were respected throughout the study, ensuring confidentiality, anonymity, and voluntary participation. The research was conducted in accordance with the principles established in the Declaration of Helsinki (World Medical Association, 2013). This study was conducted in accordance with the protocol approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Extremadura (Registry No. 56/2023).

2.3 Procedure

The intervention was implemented during the second term of the 2024–2025 school year, within regular Social Sciences/Environmental Knowledge class time. In each participating classroom, the experience was delivered across six sessions of approximately 50 min each. Each classroom was equipped with four Meta Quest two headsets, and students rotated through headset use across the sessions; while waiting for their turn, the remaining students accessed the same content through the 360° screen-based navigation mode on their own personal devices, allowing the whole class to engage with the experience in parallel. Sessions were jointly supervised by the classroom teacher and a member of the research team, who provided technical support, ensured correct headset use, and managed transitions between groups.

2.4 Instruments

The virtual environment was created using the Delightex digital platform. Delightex makes it possible to structure the experience into scenes or thematic spaces in which audio explanations, representative visual objects, and 3D models can be inserted.

Two ad hoc quantitative instruments, validated through expert judgment, were used for data collection.

• Local heritage knowledge test: This instrument consisted of 10 multiple-choice items with a single correct answer, focused on the historical, monumental, and cultural heritage of the city of Badajoz. The test was administered before and after the intervention to assess learning gains.
• Student perception questionnaire: This instrument consisted of 12 items rated on a four-point Likert scale and organized into four dimensions: familiarity with VR, autonomy and ease of use, interest and enjoyment of the experience, and perceived learning and usefulness.

To ensure the content validity of the questionnaire, a panel composed of one expert in Social Sciences education, one specialist in computer vision and 3D modeling and visualization, and two researchers in educational technology evaluated the clarity, relevance, and importance of each item using Aiken’s V coefficient (Torres-Malca et al., 2022). The resulting Aiken’s V values ranged from 0.96 to 1.00, indicating a high level of agreement among the experts regarding the adequacy of the included items. The perception instrument was also subjected to a reliability test, yielding a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.81, which indicates good internal consistency (Campo-Arias and Oviedo, 2008). Both instruments are presented in Supplementary Appendix A1.

2.5 Data analysis

The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25, applying both descriptive and inferential statistical procedures to address the research objectives. First, a descriptive analysis of frequencies, means, and standard deviations was conducted for each item in the Likert-type questionnaire on students’ perception of the experience.

To assess the impact of immersive learning, a paired-samples t-test was used to compare performance on the local heritage knowledge test before and after the intervention. To explore possible differences in perceptions according to gender and school grade, normality was first checked using the Shapiro-Wilk test. The results showed that the variables gender and grade were not normally distributed (Supplementary Appendix A2); therefore, non-parametric tests were used for between-group comparisons: the Mann-Whitney U test for gender and the Kruskal–Wallis test for school grade. These analyses focused on specific dimensions related to motivation, autonomy, and perceived learning.

3 Results

Regarding SO1, which focused on the impact of VR on students’ motivation to learn local history and heritage, the Likert-type questionnaire yielded a clearly positive evaluation from the students (Table 3). The items related to interest, enjoyment, and perceived usefulness obtained very high mean scores. In particular, the item “I would like to repeat the VR experience” reached a mean of 4.00, indicating unanimous acceptance and a strong willingness to engage in similar activities again. Students also rated the exploratory and content-related aspects of the experience very positively: “I enjoyed exploring the monuments virtually” obtained a mean of 3.92, while “VR made history more fun” scored 3.87, reflecting a high level of enjoyment and emotional involvement. Likewise, the learning outcomes were positively perceived, with items such as “I learned new things about places in Badajoz” (M = 3.78) and “The experience helped me better understand the history of Badajoz” (M = 3.86).

TABLE 3. Descriptive statistics for the perception questionnaire.

Own elaboration.

With respect to SO2, the results show limited prior experience with this technology in both non-educational and educational contexts (Table 4). According to the perception questionnaire, 28.6% of the students strongly disagreed with the statement that they regularly use VR tools, while 21.0% somewhat agreed. Only 39.0% agreed and 11.4% strongly agreed, suggesting that, although some students had had contact with these tools, their use was neither frequent nor widespread. More notably, the items “I am used to using VR in class” and “I have used VR before to learn history” received 100% of responses in the “strongly disagree” category. This indicates that the students had not previously used VR as a pedagogical resource in the classroom, nor specifically for learning historical content.

TABLE 4. Prior familiarity of the sample with VR.

Own elaboration.

To address SO3, a knowledge test was administered before and after the intervention (Tables 5, 6). The comparison of means using a paired-samples t-test revealed a significant difference between the two measurements. The mean pretest score was 1.19 points (SD = 1.51), whereas the posttest mean rose to 8.39 points (SD = 1.52) out of a maximum of 10, representing an average gain of 7.20 points after the immersive experience. The statistical analysis showed a t value of −35.050 with 104 degrees of freedom and a two-tailed significance of p < .001, indicating that the improvement was statistically significant. The 95% confidence interval for the mean difference ranged from −7.61 to −6.79, confirming the consistency of the observed effect. It should also be noted that the correlation between pretest and posttest scores was very low (r = .038) and not significant (p = .698), suggesting that initial performance did not predict final performance and that the improvement was broadly shared across the sample.

TABLE 5. Comparison of pre- and post-intervention knowledge results.

Own elaboration.

TABLE 6. Paired-samples t-test for knowledge pre- and post-intervention.

Own elaboration.

Finally, SO4 was examined. Regarding gender, boys obtained slightly higher scores on items related to familiarity with and autonomy in the use of technology, such as “I regularly use VR tools” and “I learned quickly how to use the headset and controllers.” By contrast, girls scored somewhat higher on items linked to perceived learning and enjoyment, such as “VR made history more fun” and “I would like to repeat the experience” (Figure 10). Since the variable did not follow a normal distribution (Supplementary Appendix A2), the Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare both groups (Table 7). The results showed no significant differences between genders (p = .05), confirming that the immersive experience was equally effective for both groups.

TABLE 7. Mann-Whitney U test for gender.

Own elaboration.

As for differences by school grade, 6th-grade students obtained the highest scores on almost all questionnaire items, especially in technological autonomy and motivation (Figure 11). This group showed mean values close to four in most indicators, which may be related to their greater cognitive maturity and prior experience with digital tools. On the other hand, 4th-grade students obtained lower scores on the technological items, such as “I regularly use VR tools,” but not on enjoyment and interest items, where they also scored highly, reflecting a receptive attitude despite lower initial familiarity. 5th-grade students occupied an intermediate position, with fairly homogeneous scores across all dimensions. Because the grade variable was not normally distributed (Supplementary Appendix A2), the Kruskal–Wallis test was used to compare groups. The significance level was p = .05. However, when each dimension was analyzed separately, only the first dimension assessed, “I regularly use VR tools,” showed significant differences between grades, while no differences were found in the remaining dimensions. This indicates that, except for the first dimension, the perception of the experience was similar across school grades (Table 8).

TABLE 8. Kruskal–Wallis test for grade level.

Own elaboration.

4 Discussion

The findings suggest that the main contribution of this study lies in the way the VR environment shaped students’ experience of local heritage through engagement, interaction, and emotional involvement. Rather than functioning only as a tool for content delivery, the virtual museum created a mediated experience in which students actively explored spaces, followed narrative cues, and responded to interactive tasks. In this sense, the results are relevant not only from an educational standpoint, but also for understanding how immersive environments influence attention, motivation, and user response. In line with previous research, the high levels of enjoyment, perceived usefulness, and willingness to repeat the experience suggest that VR can strengthen both cognitive and affective engagement when it is designed around meaningful interaction and exploration (Córcoles-Charcos et al., 2023; Corrales et al., 2024).

A central aspect of these findings concerns the role of immersion as a mechanism underlying students’ responses. Although constructs such as presence or emotional arousal were not directly measured, the pattern of results suggests that the combination of 360° scenes, guided interaction, narrative sequencing, and gamified activities appears to have fostered a strong sense of experiential involvement. This is particularly relevant in local heritage education, since VR reconfigured how students encountered and interpreted the local past, allowing them not simply to receive historical information, but to engage with it through situated and exploratory interaction. The immersive environment seems to have influenced how students attended to, interpreted, and connected with the content.

The findings related to SO1 reinforce this interpretation to some extent. The very high scores on items associated with enjoyment, interest, and willingness to repeat the activity indicate that the students did not perceive the intervention merely as a novel technological exercise, but as a meaningful experience. This distinction is important because it suggests that the motivational value of VR does not arise from novelty alone, but from the experiential coherence of the environment. In other words, the design of the virtual museum, through its spatial organization, multimodal resources, and interactive dynamics, appears to have supported forms of engagement that are especially relevant for understanding users’ responses to immersive educational environments. However, self-reported measures, particularly among young children, may not reliably distinguish genuine engagement from a novelty effect. Ruling this out would require repeated exposure or comparison with an equally novel non-technological activity (e.g., a museum visit). It is also possible that the narrative dimension of the experience, rather than the technology itself, played a substantial role in these results, an aspect that this study does not specifically address, and that merits attention in future research.

A second relevant contribution concerns usability and accessibility. With regard to SO2, most students had little or no prior experience with VR in educational contexts, yet they were able to interact with the environment positively and complete the proposed activities. This suggests that immersive environments can be accessible to novice users when they are supported by clear structure, simple interaction patterns, and age-appropriate guidance. In this respect, the study contributes to current discussions on user adaptation in VR by showing that previous technological familiarity is not a necessary condition for meaningful participation, provided that the immersive experience is pedagogically and ergonomically well designed (Portuguez-Castro and Santos Garduño, 2024; Valdés and Gutiérrez-Esteban, 2023). This point is especially relevant in primary education, where differences in digital experience are to be expected. It should also be noted that navigation control within HMD-based environments can influence cybersickness and postural stability, an effect that may vary across age groups (Séba et al., 2026); this represents a relevant consideration for future implementations of VR heritage experiences with primary-age children.

The results obtained for SO4 also support a user-centered interpretation of the experience. Although no statistically significant differences were found in most comparisons, some patterns emerged in relation to gender and grade level. Boys showed slightly higher levels of perceived technological familiarity and autonomy, whereas girls reported somewhat higher enjoyment and perceived learning. Similarly, older students displayed greater technological confidence, while younger students also responded positively despite lower prior familiarity. These tendencies may be better interpreted as differences in modes of engagement with the system than as differences in effectiveness. From the perspective of VR and human behavior, such findings highlight the importance of considering developmental stage, perceived control, and familiarity with digital interaction when designing immersive environments for diverse users. Immersive technologies do not merely transmit information; they also shape perspective, salience, and meaning.

A third salient contribution of the study lies in the inclusive and representational potential of the VR experience. Beyond the digitization of heritage content, the virtual museum reconfigured students’ engagement with the local past by embedding it in a spatial, narrative, and interactive environment. Students’ reactions to the inclusion of female historical figures indicated that the experience did not merely enrich the content base but also expanded the interpretive frame through which local heritage was understood. In this regard, VR can support a more inclusive reframing of historical knowledge by foregrounding perspectives that are often underrepresented in conventional heritage narratives (Sepúlveda, 2022; Ballesteros-Colino, 2020; Ortega-Sánchez, 2022). This contribution is especially relevant because immersive technologies do not function as neutral carriers of information; rather, they shape attention, condition interpretation, and influence the meanings users assign to what they encounter (Gabardón de la Banda, 2005).

Within this broader experiential framework, the learning gains observed in SO3 can be understood as a consequence of students’ active and situated interaction with the virtual environment. The significant difference between pretest and posttest scores indicates that the experience was effective in supporting knowledge acquisition. However, the most relevant point is that learning seems to have emerged through exploration, contextualization, and multimodal engagement rather than through passive reception. Students navigated spaces, followed stories, responded to prompts, and interacted with cultural references in a way that likely strengthened memory and conceptual understanding.

The study also highlights the practical conditions required for successful implementation, including adequate equipment, stable connectivity, and teacher training (Valdés and Gutiérrez-Esteban, 2023). Within these conditions, Delightex proved to be a viable tool for creating an immersive environment and structuring a coherent learning experience. Overall, the findings suggest that the educational value of VR depends less on technological novelty than on how effectively it is integrated into curriculum, classroom practice, and instructional design, where its potential can be translated into meaningful learning experiences.

5 Conclusion

This study provides evidence that VR can be a viable and effective medium for designing immersive heritage experiences in primary education. The virtual museum of Badajoz supported learning and shaped how students engaged with the content through exploration, interaction, and narrative immersion. The results suggest that the educational value of VR lies not merely in its capacity to present information, but in its ability to reorganize attention, support active participation, and elicit favorable user perceptions.

A particularly relevant result is that students with little prior experience in VR were still able to interact successfully with the environment, which highlights the importance of usability, accessibility, and age-appropriate design. This makes the proposal relevant not only as an educational intervention, but also as an example of how immersive systems can be adapted to novice users in school contexts. The inclusion of historical figures, including women, further shows that VR can support more inclusive representations of heritage by embedding them in a spatial and interactive format.

The study also points to several directions for future research. Longitudinal studies are needed to examine the durability of the observed effects, while qualitative approaches could provide deeper insight into user experience, immersion, and the perceptions of both students and teachers. Comparative studies across different immersive formats and educational settings would help clarify which design features are most effective. In parallel, teacher training should continue to address not only digital literacy, but also the pedagogical design of VR environments that are coherent, accessible, and context-sensitive.

Although the study has limitations, including the absence of a control group and the use of a convenience sample, the findings indicate that the proposal is transferable to other contexts with adequate resources and instructional support. Ultimately, this work supports the view that VR should be understood not simply as a resource for education, but as a medium capable of transforming how users experience, interpret, and learn from cultural heritage.

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Footnotes

Edited by: Sungchul Jung, Kennesaw State University, United States

Reviewed by: Lóránt Dénes Dávid, John von Neumann University, Hungary

Deny Tri Ardianto, Sebelas Maret University, Indonesia