Place, social and co-presence: Do they differ based on students’ gaming experiences?

Abstract

Nowadays, virtual worlds have been utilized in the field of education as one of the virtual learning platforms. Since the virtual world environment is very similar to video game environment, the gaming experiences of the students might affect their sense of presence in the environment. Thus this study seeks to determine whether there are differences between students with different levels of gaming experiences on their sense of place presence, social presence and co-presence. The study involved 33 part-time diploma students and was carried out for six weeks using questionnaires and interview questions as research instruments. The results of the study showed a significant difference between students with a lot of gaming experiences and less gaming experiences in terms of place presence, and this finding was supported with the data from the interview. However, no significant difference was noted between both groups in terms of social presence and co-presence.