•  
  •  
 

Keywords

Chemical engineering, immersive learning, transport phenomena, virtual reality, visualisation, undergraduate education

Document Type

Research Article

Abstract

```python text = """As experiential learning becomes more central to engineering education, immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) are emerging as transformative tools for delivering abstract and spatially intensive subjects. This study investigates the effectiveness of a custom-designed VR for enhancing student understanding of transport phenomena (TP) concepts in undergraduate chemical engineering education. A mixed-method evaluation involving 160 students from the Chemical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), Malaysia, was conducted using pre\x02and post-intervention surveys. Likert-scale ratings and word cloud analyses were used to assess perceived conceptual gains, usability, engagement, and perceived instructional value. Findings reveal that 85.6% of students reported a perceived enhancement in their conceptual understanding following the VR session. Over 60% rated the experience as “excellent,” and 90% expressed willingness to recommend the module to peers. Qualitative feedback highlighted enhanced visualisation, greater engagement, and strong motivation to apply the learning in real-world contexts. Minimal technical issues were reported, and students recommended enhancements such as gamified features, interactive control, and pre-session orientation materials. Student feedback also identified areas for improvement, including greater interactivity, clearer visualisations of complex equations, and improved ergonomics for headset use. These insights provide actionable directions for refining future iterations of the VR learning module. Overall, the findings suggest that immersive VR has strong potential as a scalable instructional tool for engineering education, capable of transforming the way students learn abstract and mathematically intensive content such as TP.""" import re # Check for control characters for i, c in enumerate(text): if ord(c) < 32 and ord(c) not in (9, 10, 13): print(f"Control char at {i}: {ord(c)}") clean = text.replace('\x02', '-') # Also check if "pre-and" should be formatted cleanly as "pre- and" or "pre-and" clean_single_line = re.sub(r'\s+', ' ', clean).strip() print("\nCleaned text:\n", clean_single_line) ``` ```text Control char at 570: 2 Cleaned text: As experiential learning becomes more central to engineering education, immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) are emerging as transformative tools for delivering abstract and spatially intensive subjects. This study investigates the effectiveness of a custom-designed VR for enhancing student understanding of transport phenomena (TP) concepts in undergraduate chemical engineering education. A mixed-method evaluation involving 160 students from the Chemical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), Malaysia, was conducted using pre-and post-intervention surveys. Likert-scale ratings and word cloud analyses were used to assess perceived conceptual gains, usability, engagement, and perceived instructional value. Findings reveal that 85.6% of students reported a perceived enhancement in their conceptual understanding following the VR session. Over 60% rated the experience as “excellent,” and 90% expressed willingness to recommend the module to peers. Qualitative feedback highlighted enhanced visualisation, greater engagement, and strong motivation to apply the learning in real-world contexts. Minimal technical issues were reported, and students recommended enhancements such as gamified features, interactive control, and pre-session orientation materials. Student feedback also identified areas for improvement, including greater interactivity, clearer visualisations of complex equations, and improved ergonomics for headset use. These insights provide actionable directions for refining future iterations of the VR learning module. Overall, the findings suggest that immersive VR has strong potential as a scalable instructional tool for engineering education, capable of transforming the way students learn abstract and mathematically intensive content such as TP. ``` As experiential learning becomes more central to engineering education, immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) are emerging as transformative tools for delivering abstract and spatially intensive subjects. This study investigates the effectiveness of a custom-designed VR for enhancing student understanding of transport phenomena (TP) concepts in undergraduate chemical engineering education. A mixed-method evaluation involving 160 students from the Chemical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), Malaysia, was conducted using **pre- and** post-intervention surveys. Likert-scale ratings and word cloud analyses were used to assess perceived conceptual gains, usability, engagement, and perceived instructional value. Findings reveal that 85.6% of students reported a perceived enhancement in their conceptual understanding following the VR session. Over 60% rated the experience as “excellent,” and 90% expressed willingness to recommend the module to peers. Qualitative feedback highlighted enhanced visualisation, greater engagement, and strong motivation to apply the learning in real-world contexts. Minimal technical issues were reported, and students recommended enhancements such as gamified features, interactive control, and pre-session orientation materials. Student feedback also identified areas for improvement, including greater interactivity, clearer visualisations of complex equations, and improved ergonomics for headset use. These insights provide actionable directions for refining future iterations of the VR learning module. Overall, the findings suggest that immersive VR has strong potential as a scalable instructional tool for engineering education, capable of transforming the way students learn abstract and mathematically intensive content such as TP.

html

Publication Date

30-6-2026

First Page

22

Last Page

34

Download

Share

COinS