A comprehensive statistical assessment framework to measure the impact of immersive environments on skills of higher education students: a case study

Universities are facing the challenge of updating the contents of their current study programs and adopting novel education strategies in order to prepare the next generation of engineers who can adapt to the highly competitive labor market of Industry 4.0. This new industrial era requires skills and competencies in state-of-the-art technologies which are constantly and rapidly evolving. This research presents an alternative approach to the current teaching-learning methodologies, focusing on the use of Virtual Reality (VR) as an educational tool and its contribution towards the upcoming industrial challenges, via what we call interactive education for future engineers (IE). Our IE strategy is supported by interactive simulation using the latest VR technologies, currently being Facebook's Oculus Rift hardware and software. With this approach, we seek to enhance the "know-how" of our students by training them in the practical skills they will need for the technological innovations of the evolving labor market. Our work has been implemented in engineering courses at Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico, aligning with the university's educational model "TEC21" which aims to increase the students' self-learning capabilities using interactive teaching and hands-on practical work to develop new abilities and competencies in an expanded variety of domains. So far, our results have shown that the use of IE not only improves the way professors teach, but reinforces skills, competencies, enhances creativity and strongly motivates the students in their daily learning.