Date of Award
8-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Industrial Engineering
Committee Chair/Advisor
Kapil Chalil Madathil
Committee Member
Sudeep Hegde
Committee Member
Emma Dixon
Committee Member
Patrick Rosopa
Abstract
Extended reality (XR) technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) can be used for technical training to help students learn and practice complex tasks in a safe digital environment. Despite known benefits evidence is required to explore the effectiveness of these technologies to support student learning outcomes. Furthermore, technical training programs need evidence about when these tools improve learning, what are the barriers to adoption of these technologies, and how training should be designed by leveraging these technologies. This dissertation examined how XR technologies can support higher education and workforce training, specifically focusing on barriers and facilitators to adopt these technologies at two-year colleges, evaluating their effectiveness to support student learning outcomes, and the design considerations for developing effective XR-enabled training.
First the findings of a literature review that examined past studies that evaluate the use of collaborative AR-enabled instruction in higher education settings are presented. The findings suggest that collaborative AR improved understanding of educational content, supported engagement, communication between collaborators, and improved task performance in diverse educational domains. Learners valued visualization of the educational content, and hands-on practice but reported issues arising from technical problems and complexity of using the AR applications. Second, a mixed methods study was conducted, where educators from two-year colleges were surveyed and interviewed to identify the barriers and facilitators to adoption of XR technologies within their existing courses. This study was guided by the consolidated framework for implementation research, and the findings highlight limited availability of XR educational content, restricted opportunities for development of XR technologies, integration challenges with existing learning management systems, institutional resource constraints, and training needs of educators as barriers to implementing XR technologies at two-year colleges.
Next, traditional online instruction modalities including an online video lecture, an instructional demonstration video were compared to a browser-based VR simulation for teaching a technical procedural task. The findings of this study suggest that participants found the browser-based VR simulation useful, however, no statistically significant differences in objective learning gains were detected among the three instructional conditions. The last study of this dissertation evaluated the effectiveness of AR to support training guided by an instructor in a geographically distributed setting. This study specifically examined the effect of user onboarding strategy and task demonstration type in the collaborative AR training environment. Participants in this study learned an industry relevant task and this study compared checklist versus interactive onboarding and video versus avatar-based demonstrations. Learning gains, transfer of training to physical equipment, and learner perceptions about this instruction modality were assessed. Participants who received avatar-based demonstrations achieved significantly greater learning gains, whereas those who received video demonstrations committed fewer errors when performing the task on physical equipment. Onboarding strategy did not significantly influence learning or transfer outcomes.
The overall findings from this dissertation provide evidence that XR is most effective when it is easy to use, supported by the institution, and matched to the learning goal. Colleges can use these results to select suitable technologies, prepare instructors, improve learner guidance, and design safer and more accessible technical training. The findings also provide practical direction for developers creating collaborative XR systems that help learners understand information and knowledge and skills acquired to real-world tasks.
Recommended Citation
Upadhyay, Bhargav, "Human-Centered Design of Extended Reality for Learning Adoption, Effectiveness, and Collaborative Training Performance" (2026). All Dissertations. 4307.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/4307
Author ORCID Identifier
0009-0008-6104-920X