Perceptions toward adopting virtual reality as a teaching aid in information technology

The use of technological tools is increasing rapidly in all fields, especially in education, which has moved from pen, pencil, and books, to using interactive technologies to help impart knowledge and understanding. Recent years have witnessed students facilitating immersive digital technology. However, it remains a challenge to provide sufficient learning medias to higher education students. The lack of novel technologies in the learning process does not necessarily mean that the students' educational level will be affected, but it may result in the need for extra efforts from both students and instructors in some fields. In order to allow education to catch up with technology, technological tools need to be utilized in the educational process. Virtual Reality (VR) is considered one of the novel options to add value to the learning journey. VR enables students to discover and explore their own knowledge. Furthermore, it makes the learning process more interesting, which improves students' motivation and attention. To ensure the actual active use of VR technology when embedded in higher education institutions, various factors that influence the acceptance or resistance of the technology integration should be examined prior to technology integration: Students and teaching staff perceptions, institutional support, barriers of integration, motivation for integration, prior technology experience, etc. This paper aims to examine instructors' perceptions towards VR integration through a case study in a Faculty of Information Technology (IT) in a University in the Middle East. Respondents surveyed in this study consisted of faculty members. A quantitative method were used, an adapted questionnaire was distributed online amongst IT teaching staff assessing their views about the possibility of the implications of VR as teaching aid. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the questionnaire data. Results obtained from the quantitative data revealed the instructors willingness to adopt VR systems as a teaching aid, their intention to incorporate it into the education process in the future, barriers to technology use, users prior knowledge in technology. The results also revealed that technology training may be maximized for the integration of VR technology. This paper concludes with recommendations to facilitate the use of VR technology as a learning medium.