Designing for Networked Learning in 360VR - A scenographic turn in online learning environments?

Despite the growing popularity of Virtual Reality (VR) in Higher Education (HE), there is a lack of studies dealing with networked and collaborative activities in VR (Radianti et al., 2020). Historically, VR has been promoted as an educational technology that can give access to exotic places or dangerous situations through computer-generated virtual worlds. Another area of application of VR has been therapeutical sessions exposing individuals to unknown situations. Concepts like interactivity, immersion and presence has been shaping the discourse of educational VR (Markowitz & Bailenson, 2019), but that is not necessarily supporting a networked or collaborative learning approach. Recently, 360-degree video cameras has made it possible to record situated practices, which can then be used as the canvas in the virtual world (McIlvenny & Davidsen, 2017). Pirker et al. (2021) argued that 360VR could potentially be a game-changer for distant education, but it is also clear that 360VR pose a new medium for supporting Networked Learning. Basically, 360VR presents a transition from logocentric platforms (e.g. Moodle) emphasising the exchange of text between peers towards platforms that build upon ideas of immersion, inhabitation and multimodality. The aim of the workshop is to discuss how principles of Networked Learning can inform the design of 360VR activities in HE.