Background
This research explores the role of visualization tools in enhancing collaborative learning in virtual reality environments.
Methodology
An experiment was conducted, involving two groups of participants, each tasked with collaboratively solving a complex maze in a virtual reality environment. Both groups experienced two conditions: the experimental condition, where participants had access to visualization tools such as visual cones and highlighting capabilities, and the
controlled condition, where these tools were not available. The participants’ situational awareness were assessed using both the Situation Awareness Rating Technique questionnaire and the Situational Awareness Linked Indicators Adapted to Novel Tasks framework.Results
The Situational Awareness Linked Indicators Adapted to Novel Tasks scores were higher for the experimental session for Group 2, while being lower for Group 1. However, the Situation Awareness Rating Technique scores were generally lowerin the experimental condition for both groups.
Conclusion
These results demonstrate the potential virtual reality has as a platform for collaborative learning and highlight the need for further research into the design of effective visualization tools and the measurement of situational awareness in virtual reality. Furthermore, this research opens up new possibilities into the design of virtual reality environments for collaborative learning and the potential of virtual reality as a tool for enhancing collaborative learning.

Despite Virtual Reality being a relatively new field, it is steadily being introduced into numerous disciplines, such as education. Within these systems, particularly in collaborative environments, it is crucial to have a high Share Situational Awareness (SSA) in order to be aware of ones’ surroundings, encourage efficient decision making and effective team coordination. This project aims to study the change in the SSA of a group of players by allowing them (or not) to
visualize their teammates’ actions.

For this scope, an experiment was carried out: a VR game was played twice by two groups of three participants, at a distance of roughly two weeks, testing both visualizing and not visualizing their teammates’ actions. During
such event, their SSA was measured and analyzed through two techniques; namely Situation Awareness Rating Technique (SART) and Situational Awareness Linked Indicators Adapted to Novel Tasks (SALIANT).

SART and SALIANT produced opposing viewpoints. According to the former, both groups showed higher degrees of SSA in their second sessions. According to the latter, both groups’ first session had the highest level of awareness. Both of these results were unrelated to the addition of actions’ visualizations. Possible explanations include the players’ confidence rising in the second session (biasing SART), and the encoders not having an accurate inter-reliability analysis for SALIANT.

Overall, the experiment produced inconclusive results on the impact of visualizing teammates’ actions on the groups’ SSA. Nonetheless, some recommendations for future research may be made: to choose the SSA measurement tool in accordance to the layout of the system that will be examined, to extend the time between sessions, and to ensure the system is suited for the experiment.

Background
Learning is a core part of how we grow as humans. Over the last few years it has been shown increasingly that learning in groups tends to be more effective than learning individually. This research aims to show a link between an individual’s Situational awareness and the degree of collaboration.
Method
An experiment was conducted where groups of participants navigated a maze. The maze was designed to require collaboration to reach the end. Data was gathered about both the situational awareness of the participants and their levels ofSocial Modes of Co-Construction.
Conclusion
The current data suggests no strong correlation between Situational Awareness and Levels of Social Modes of Co-Construction. However, more data will need to be gathered to increase the reliability of this conclusion.

Background: The advancements in Virtual Reality (VR) technology have opened up new possibilities for studying human dynamics and conducting experiments in immersive environments. To gain insights into collaborative learning and how it can be enhanced, an experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of visualizations of activities in VR on social modes of co-construction, which is to what extent learners refer to their partner's contribution.

Methods: A maze, specifically designed for collaboration, has been chosen to use for this study and visualization tools such as laser pointing and vision cones were made available for certain sessions.

Results.: The findings from this maze experiment did not provide conclusive evidence regarding the impact of visualization tools on social modes of co-construction, mainly due to the limited comparison material available. An interesting finding however, is that sessions with visualization tools tend to have more distracted participants compared to the absence of them.

Conclusion: Further research is needed to examine the relationship between visualization tools and social modes of co-construction, as well as to explore whether the observed distractions are specific to the participants in this study or representative of a bigger spectrum. By addressing these aspects, we can gain a better understanding of the role of visualization tools in collaborative learning and uncover strategies to mitigate any potential distractions they may introduce.

Background
Virtual Reality is an increasingly hot topic these days. As a user, you can play more and more high-quality games and strides are being made to use this medium for education and new kinds of workspaces. Previous research on Virtual Reality shows that it could improve teamwork by letting users share information easier. Users in Virtual Reality can communicate in ways exclusive to the medium, like highlighting exact locations, so this paper analyzed how effective verbal communication is in this situation.

Methods
To analyze how Virtual Reality influences group interaction, an experiment was set up that ascertained in the presence and absence of visualizations of user actions whether a group being more aware influences how they communicate in Virtual Reality. To approach this, this paper used a maze in Virtual Reality where participants need to communicate hints of their color.

Results
The data encoding of the experiment showed that when a group's Shared Situational Awareness decreased between sessions, their level of Social Modes of Co-Construction did as well to a similar degree. When the awareness remained around the same level, only decreasing slightly, the level of social modes remained as well, going slightly up or down depending on the reading of the data.

Conclusions
From the research experiment, this paper observes there is a positive correlation between group Shared Situational Awareness and their Social Modes of Co-Construction.
Because of limited time and data sources, it is suggested that this experiment is reproduced over a longer period on a larger scale to support these findings.