A Virtual Reality Simulator to Assist in Memory Management Lectures.

Virtual reality technology can assist the teaching-learning process via concrete concepts that follow a sequence of steps to accomplish a task in a three-dimensional space, as proven in the literature (e.g., operating a vehicle or disaster relief simulation). However, it is not clear whether virtual reality can also enhance situations involving concepts that are not inherently related to a three-dimensional space, such as the execution of a computer algorithm. This paper presents an immersive and interactive virtual reality simulator that can aid in the teaching of the memory management functionality of operating systems, including single, fixed and dynamic contiguous techniques, and the non-contiguous technique of paging. Learners are immersed inside a computer motherboard to learn memory management functionality of operating systems. They use a head-mounted display such as 3D virtual reality headsets and can interact with the environment using eye-gaze tracking and a joystick. We also present a case study in which 80 students were divided into two groups to evaluate the simulator. Our results indicate that using our simulator is a more effective approach for teaching memory management concepts than expositive classes. The functionality and usability tests results highlighted the positive aspects of the simulator and improvements that could be made.