Evaluating Virtual Reality as Immersive Medium for Enhancing Music Skills

The VR interfaces have become more affordable than ever before. Because of their multimodal interaction capabilities, these interfaces provide a medium to virtually participate in various learning processes that can engage both sensory and motor senses. In this paper, we present an ongoing study to evaluate a VR game designed to enhance four aspects of rhythmic perceptual skills in elementary school children. The game developed is based on a well-known tower defense scenario in which the user controls units with different rhythmic patterns and tempo changes. Currently, 22 students are participating in the study, which shows promising results. We report the preliminary results and discuss possible applications of e-learning in virtual environments in music theory education.