@conference {, title = {GenAI-Chatbots as Debriefers: Investigating the Role Conformity and Learner Interaction in Counseling Training}, booktitle = {DELFI 2025}, year = {In Press}, author = {Dominik Evangelou and Maria Klar and Kristian H. Tr{\"a}g and Miriam Mulders and Melina Marnitz and Lara Rahner} } @article {, title = {Go green: Evaluating a VR application on biodiversity in German secondary school classrooms}, journal = {Instructional Science}, year = {2025}, abstract = {

One discussion in the context of education for sustainable development centers around the importance of suitable teaching materials for promoting pro-environmental attitudes. Especially applications that let learners travel to otherwise difficult to reach places seem promising for digital sustainability education that is both accessible and socially just. Applications for German-speaking learners are however rare, and it has often not been checked whether those that exist are fit for classroom use. Therefore, this paper focuses on an investigation of the Virtual Reality (VR) learning application \"On Biodiversity\’s Tracks\", developed by greenpeace, with a focus on the environment of the Amazon rainforest. In an experimental study, (1) VR-based and (2) traditional lesson conditions were compared in terms of their effects on self-appraisal of knowledge, interest, and attitude. Pre- and post-questionnaires were used to uncover between-subject and within-subject effects. 172 students at eight secondary schools in Germany were recruited. The results revealed that both experimental conditions were effective regarding increase of self-appraised knowledge. An increase in interest was barely found in either condition. Changes at the attitudinal level could mostly not be discovered. Further analyses highlighted that, unlike the experimental conditions, there were significant differences in self-rated learning outcomes between the types of schools. In general, our results indicate that VR learning applications can contribute to the teaching of topics such as sustainability and biodiversity in a target group-oriented and meaningful way. However, further research is needed to adequately assess VR learning effectiveness, especially regarding affective learning outcomes, due to their importance for sustainable behaviors of subsequent generations.

}, keywords = {biodiversity, media pedagogy, sustainable development goals, virtual reality}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-024-09697-1}, author = {Miriam Mulders and Kristian H. Tr{\"a}g and Lara Kirner} } @article {, title = {Past lives, present learners: Future directions for history education in virtual reality}, journal = {Computers \& Education: X Reality}, volume = {7}, year = {2025}, chapter = {100114}, abstract = {

This study investigates the relationship between presence and learning outcomes in Virtual Reality (VR) environments, with a focus on both cognitive and affective learning. Using the\ Anne Frank VR House, a virtual replica of a hiding place for a group of Jewish people during World War II, 74 university students explored how the feeling of presence affects knowledge acquisition and perspective-taking. The results showed a significant positive correlation between presence and perspective-taking, but no effect on knowledge acquisition, meaning that a higher sense of presence predicted higher perspective-taking, while knowledge scores did not. These findings highlight VR\&$\#$39;s potential to create a sense of presence and thus foster emotional engagement in history education, suggesting that empathy-driven learning may be an effective way to engage students with complex socio-political issues beyond factual knowledge.

}, keywords = {Anne Frank, head-mounted displays, Learning, presence, virtual reality}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cexr.2025.100114}, author = {Miriam Mulders and Kristian H. Tr{\"a}g and Lilly Kaninski and Lara Rahner} } @article {, title = {Virtual reality and affective learning in commemorative history teaching: Effects of immersive technology and generative learning activities}, journal = {Journal of Research on Technology in Education}, year = {2025}, chapter = {1-21}, abstract = {

Learning with virtual reality (VR) can be highly motivating and conducive for cognitive and affective learning outcomes. For commemorative history education, VR enables novel experiences of testimonies co-created by survivors, witnesses, and museums. VR technologies allow learners to feel immediacy and an emotional connection to digitally reconstructed spaces and events of the past. While VR has proven to enhance affective learning outcomes by provoking emotions, interest, or motivation, its perceptual richness may also lead to distraction and cognitive overload. Generative learning activities can alleviate some of the limitations of learning with VR by helping learners to focus on the learning material. This study examines a highly engaging and historical immersive VR application and thereby investigates the effectiveness of the generative learning activities of self-explaining and drawing. Seventy-four undergraduate students explored a three-dimensional representation of the room where Anne Frank, a Jewish girl, was hiding during World War II. For the two experimental conditions, students had to either create drawings of Anne Frank\’s room and their own room or verbally explain how Anne Frank\’s living conditions would feel for them. For the control condition, students did not engage in a subsequent activity. Based on generative learning theory, we predicted that students engaging in generative learning activities would display higher posttest scores in knowledge and perspective taking than the control group. No such effects were found. Although the VR experience itself increased the ability to empathize with Anne Frank across all groups, it did not contribute to knowledge building. The study results indicate that even without any additional activity, VR can convey highly emotionally engaging testimonies and enables role taking, which suggests that VR is in particular suitable for affective learning.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2025.2461524}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15391523.2025.2461524}, author = {Miriam Mulders and Kristian H. Tr{\"a}g and Lilly Kaninski and Lara Kirner and Michael Kerres} } @conference {, title = {What the Amazon Can{\textquoteright}t Deliver: Lessons Learned from Virtual Reality-Based Sustainability Education}, booktitle = {iLRN 2024}, volume = {2272}, year = {2025}, pages = {68-80}, publisher = {Immersive Learning Network}, organization = {Immersive Learning Network}, address = {Glasgow }, abstract = {

With Virtual Reality technology becoming an increasingly popular method to convey knowledge, sound pedagogical principles are needed to imple ment Virtual Reality effectively in classrooms. This paper proposes a pedagogical model that provides guidelines for educational practitioners before, during, and after Virtual Reality instruction. For elucidation, concrete examples as well as generative learning tasks are provided. These are based on a Virtual Reality learn ing experience developed by greenpeace and its evaluation studies. Finally, some general strengths and weaknesses of the proposed model are discussed.

}, keywords = {Instructional Guidelines, Pedagogy, virtual reality}, isbn = {978-3-031-80472-4}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-80472-4_5}, url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-80472-4_5$\#$citeas}, author = {Kristian H. Tr{\"a}g and Miriam Mulders} } @conference {, title = {Editorial: Tagungsband des Jungen Forums f{\"u}r Medien und Hochschulentwicklung 2023}, booktitle = {MedienP{\"a}dagogik: Zeitschrift f{\"u}r Theorie und Praxis der Medienbildung}, volume = {58}, year = {2024}, doi = {10.21240/mpaed/58/2024.07.02.X}, url = {https://www.medienpaed.com/article/view/1965}, author = {Miriam Mulders and Kristian H. Tr{\"a}g and Tatjana Steinhaus and Vonarx, Anne} } @conference {, title = {Gestaltung immersiver Lernszenarien: Generative Aktivit{\"a}ten beim Lernen mit dem Anne Frank VR House}, booktitle = {Workshops der 22. Fachtagung Bildungstechnologien (DELFI)}, year = {2024}, pages = {13-20}, publisher = {Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Informatik}, organization = {Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Informatik}, address = {Fulda}, abstract = {

Das Lernen in immersiver virtueller Realit\ät (VR) kann motivierend und f\örderlich sein, aber es kann auch zu Ablenkung und kognitiver \Überlastung f\ühren. Generative Lernaktivit\äten k\önnen einige der Einschr\änkungen des Lernens mit immersiver VR abschw\ächen, indem sie den Lernenden helfen, sich auf das Lernmaterial zu konzentrieren. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die Wirksamkeit von zwei generativen Lernstrategien: Selbst-Erkl\ären und Zeichnen. W\ährend bisherige Studien zu generativen Lernaktivit\äten eher kognitive Lernziele adressierten, wurden die Aufgaben in dieser Studie so formuliert, dass Bez\üge zum Selbst hergestellt und so affektive Ziele wie die Perspektiven\übernahme in den VR-Protagonisten eher erreicht werden k\önnen. Vierundsiebzig Bachelorstudierende erkundeten den Raum, in dem Anne Frank sich vor den Nationalsozialisten im zweiten Weltkrieg verstecken musste, in einer immersiven VR-Umgebung. F\ür die experimentellen Bedingungen wurden die Studierenden nach der VR-Erfahrung entweder aufgefordert, Zeichnungen von Anne Franks Zimmer und ihrem eigenen Zimmer zu erstellen oder zu erkl\ären, wie sich Anne Franks Lebensbedingungen f\ür sie anf\ühlen w\ürden. F\ür die Kontrollbedingung nahmen die Studierenden an keiner Lernaktivit\ät teil. In diesem Paper werden die Ergebnisse deskriptiver Analysen der generativen Lernaktivit\äten vorgestellt und diskutiert.

}, doi = {10.18420/delfi2024-ws-02}, author = {Miriam Mulders and Kristian H. Tr{\"a}g and Lara Kirner and Lilly Kaninski} } @article {, title = {Studie: Wie lernt sich{\textquoteright}s mit der Greenpeace-App?}, journal = {on. Lernen in der digitalen Welt }, volume = {16}, year = {2024}, pages = {36-37}, url = {https://elibrary.utb.de/doi/pdf/10.5555/on-16-2024_15}, author = {Miriam Mulders and Lara Kirner and Kristian H. Tr{\"a}g and Heinen, Richard} } @proceedings {, title = {Vom Pixel zur Pr{\"a}senz{\textendash}R{\"u}ckblick auf das JFMH 2023 an der Universit{\"a}t Duisburg-Essen}, year = {2024}, pages = {1-12}, publisher = {MedienPaed.com}, address = {PHZH}, abstract = {

Die Tagung des Jungen Forums f\ür Medien und Hochschulentwicklung konnte 2023, nach zwei Jahren Online-Veranstaltung, wieder in ein Pr\äsenzformat \überf\ührt werden. Die Veranstaltung trug den Titel \«Spannungsfeld der digitalen Kompetenz\» und konnte vielf\ältige Perspektiven aus der wissenschaftlichen Praxis aufzeigen. Das Learning Lab (Lehrstuhl f\ür Mediendidaktik und Wissensmanagement der Fakult\ät f\ür Bildungswissenschaften) der Universit\ät Duisburg-Essen richtete die Tagung mit einem besonderen Augenmerk auf den sozialen Austausch und das Netzwerken zwischen den teilnehmenden Nachwuchswissenschaftler:innen aus. Trotz einer vergleichsweise geringen Teilnehmendenzahl im Vergleich zu den vorherigen Online-Veranstaltungen konnte auf der JFMH-Tagung 2023 durch eine Vielzahl unterschiedlicher Formate das Ziel der Vernetzung erfolgreich adressiert werden.

}, doi = {10.21240/mpaed/58/2024.03.21.X.}, url = {https://doi.org/10.21240/mpaed/58/2024.03.21.X.}, author = {Kristian H. Tr{\"a}g and Tatjana Steinhaus and Miriam Mulders} } @conference {, title = {Artenvielfalt im Unterricht - Ergebnisse qualitativer Befragungen von Sch{\"u}ler:innen zum Einsatz von XR}, booktitle = {DELFI}, volume = {DELFI 2023. Die 21. Fachtagung Bildungstechnologien der Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Informatik e.V. }, year = {2023}, pages = {89-98}, publisher = {Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Informatik}, organization = {Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Informatik}, address = {Aachen}, abstract = {

Im Fokus des Papiers steht die Untersuchung der von greenpeace entwickelten XR-Lernanwendung \“Der Artenvielfalt auf der Spur\” mit Fokus auf der Umgebung des Amazonas-Regenwaldes. Die Aussagen von acht Fokusgruppen mit Sch\üler:innen der siebten bis neunten Klasse deutscher Schulen wurden qualitativ ausgewertet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Sch\üler:innen bedeutsam ihr Wissen zu Biodiversit\ät anreichern konnten. Ferner gaben die Sch\üler:innen an, sich im Nachgang mit assoziierten Inhalten (z.B. Arten- und Klimaschutz) auseinandergesetzt und eigene Verhaltensweisen reflektiert zu haben. In allen Fokusgruppen wurde deutlich, dass die Lernanwendung sowohl die Einstellungs- als auch die Verhaltensebene positiv beeinflussen konnte. Insgesamt wurde die Lernanwendung von den Sch\üler:innen positiv bewertet, was sie auf die erlebten Lernprozesse wie physische und soziale Pr\äsenz und der Verarbeitung von audio-visuellen Reizen zur\ückf\ührten.

}, keywords = {Artenvielfalt, Augmented Reality, Biodiversit{\"a}t, Extended Reality, Fokusgruppe, nachhaltige Entwicklung, virtual reality, XR}, doi = {10.18420/wsdelfi2023-24}, author = {Miriam Mulders and Kristian H. Tr{\"a}g and Lara Kirner} } @article {, title = {Presence and Flow as Moderators in XR-based Sustainability Education}, journal = {Sustainability}, volume = {15}, year = {2023}, chapter = {16496}, abstract = {

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are emerging technologies with a variety of potential benefits for sustainability education. Here, learning processes such as flow and presence seem to determine the learning experience. Therefore, this paper presents the results of a mixedmethods study investigating a VR- and AR-based learning application on biodiversity developed by greenpeace. A total of 156 students tested the application addressing the Amazon rainforest and rated its efficacy in terms of effects on knowledge, interest, and attitude. Pre- and post-questionnaires as well as focus groups were used to uncover within-subject effects. The study results revealed that flow and presence had a moderating effect on knowledge and that this effect is strongest in learners with little prior knowledge. Presence also showed a moderating effect on one of three attitude measures. In general, the learning application was able to increase knowledge and improve attitude in this sample. The focus groups also revealed that the students engaged with environmental topics even after the experience. They also formed ideas for more environmentally friendly behavioral change. Moreover, the students described the application as impressive, captivating, and realistic. It can be concluded that presence and flow are crucial processes for learning with VR and AR technologies.

}, keywords = {Augmented Reality, biodiversity, flow, presence, sustainability education, sustainable development, virtual reality, xReality}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3390/su152316496}, url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/23/16496}, author = {Miriam Mulders and Kristian H. Tr{\"a}g} } @conference {, title = {Walking In Virtual Shoes: Can Creating Avatars In Social Virtual Reality Enhance Counseling Competence, Presence, Perspective Taking, Embodiment And Engagement?}, booktitle = {CELDA 2025}, author = {Dominik Evangelou and Miriam Mulders and Kristian H. Tr{\"a}g} }