Bridging Theory and Practice: Evaluating a Game-Based VR Approach in Construction Education

This qualitative pilot study evaluates a game-based virtual reality tool designed to teach construction concepts to interior architecture students. The application was built using AutoCAD, SketchUp, and Unreal Engine 5.5, and features eight rooms that showcase construction materials such as gypsum, brick, and Ytong. Its central aim is to assess whether immersive, game-based VR can improve understanding of construction sequences and materials, and to identify usability barriers that should guide future iterative development.

The study drew on interviews and surveys from five fourth-year students, analyzed thematically through the AVRTS framework of ease of use, usefulness, and enjoyment. Participants reported that controls and teleportation navigation became intuitive after brief familiarization, and that the VR format conveyed spatial relationships and material properties more effectively than textbooks. High levels of immersion and sustained motivation were consistently noted. Improvement areas centered on clearer in-game instructions, more legible text, a more structured navigation flow, interactive tasks distributed throughout the experience rather than concentrated at the end, and greater detail on material properties.

The authors are careful to frame these results as early-stage usability insights rather than definitive evidence of learning gains. The small, context-specific sample, drawn from a single educational setting, limits generalizability to other institutions, student populations, or construction disciplines. The findings are therefore positioned as foundational input for user-centered refinement.

The concluding assessment holds that the application shows promise for construction and interior architecture education, while acknowledging that further development is necessary to realize its full instructional potential. The authors argue that integrating game-based learning and VR into curricula could meaningfully transform how students build intuitive, immersive understanding of construction concepts. The study adheres to ethical standards, including voluntary participation and anonymized interview data, and discloses that ChatGPT was used for translation and preliminary theme detection, with all analysis and interpretation performed manually by the researchers.