Virtual Worlds

Existing research in extended reality for education emphasizes learning outcomes rather than the process for developing their materials. Design thinking, a method in Research through Design, which often generates artefacts and systems, can help address this limitation. As such, this paper presents a process for developing 360° videos based on the six steps of the design thinking process with a new step for planning. The authors also propose a novel approach emphasizing co-creation and Indigenous Research Values throughout the process, showing respect, and minimizing misinterpretations, appropriations, and weak translations that often result from recording stories. Presented through an example titled ‘Tipi Teachings’, a digital story rooted in Indigenous Knowledge of Engineering, the authors demonstrate how design thinking and co-creation can be applied to digital storytelling, proposing a procedure which aims to provide guidance to future researchers utilizing digital storytelling, minimizing trial and error, and providing an opportunity for researchers to share and document lessons learned. While the proposed process was created within a Canadian Indigenous research context, and centers Indigenous storybasket values, these values require researchers to listen to and build relationships with the community, incorporating their core values, regardless of whether they directly align with the storybasket values, adjusting the process to their specific context. The decolonial design process aligned with design thinking also considers decolonization globally, rather than locally.

Traditional neuropsychological memory assessments lack ecological validity and often fail to capture how memory functions in everyday life. This limits early detection of cognitive decline and reduces correspondence with patient complaints and caregiver observations. We argue that virtual reality (VR) mostly addresses these limitations. VR-based assessments immerse individuals in naturalistic environments that engage authentic cognitive processing while maintaining experimental control. We review empirical evidence demonstrating that VR assessments show superior diagnostic sensitivity for distinguishing healthy aging from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), particularly through tasks that integrate memory with spatial navigation and executive function. VR-derived performance metrics also correlate more strongly with subjective experiences and caregiver reports than traditional tests. We propose that VR represents a fundamental reconceptualization of memory assessment, though challenges regarding standardization and accessibility must be addressed.

Obstacle negotiation during locomotion depends on the integration of exteroceptive information about the environment, proprioceptive signals from the body, and exproprioceptive visual feedback about the limbs. This study examined how removing visual limb information and introducing VR-specific sensory uncertainty affect overground obstacle-crossing behavior. Participants walked under three conditions: natural environment with full vision, natural environment with lower-limb occlusion, and immersive VR without a lower-limb representation. Removing limb vision in the real world selectively increased toe clearance while leaving baseline gait unchanged, demonstrating the role of exproprioceptive feedback in fine-tuning foot trajectory. VR amplified these adaptations, yielding slower speeds, wider bases of support, and even greater clearance margins, reflecting compounded uncertainty from altered exteroceptive cues. Yet obstacle location effects were consistent across environments, suggesting preserved underlying control and the potential for a scaling relationship between VR and real-world performance. Findings highlight key design considerations for VR-based gait assessment and rehabilitation.