Effectiveness of the use of virtual reality for youth and adult education

the paper emphasizes the viability of the use of training programs in virtual reality (VR) to teach school students and adult learners. In the course of an experiment, 5 study programs on biology and geometry for high school students were created in a virtual environment and finalized in «Unity», a multi-platform tool for creating 3D-images. The author analyzes an impact of VR-study programs on thinking and other cognitive processes, as well as on some personality traits and concludes that study programs created in a virtual reality stimulate thinking. VR contributes to the progressive development of procedural and operational characteristics of thinking; it then results in more successful problem-solving. Virtual reality simulates task components and significantly increases creativity. Studying with VR programs improves traditional indicators of short-term visual memory, observation, stability, attention focusing, an ability to generalize and classify, and it also improves field independence (cognitive style). In general, a virtual learning environment is an effective teaching method, tool and technology, especially for adults. A negative impact of virtual reality is fragmentary and adjustable.