Initial Perception of Virtual World Users: A Study about Impacts of Learning Styles and Digital Experience

Virtual Worlds emerge as three-dimensional environments that have the potential to stimulate advances in the educational field by promoting interactivity, freedom and autonomy for students. However, its effective adoption in educational institutions is still considered very limited, and few studies have so far sought to identify more specific causes for such limitation. This research aims to contribute to the theme through a preliminary study about the impact of individual characteristics of learning styles and digital experience on users’ initial perception about 3D Virtual Worlds. An experiment was conducted with a sample consisting of potential influencers in the decision making process for adoption of this type of approach, being composed by professionals from educational area that experimented a 3D virtual laboratory for the first time. As a result, some insights about the mentioned characteristics’ influence on user first impression are identified and some potential adjustments necessary to better fit different profiles are suggested, envisioning to disseminate theuse of Virtual Worlds in Education