The development of virtual reality application for social studies teaching

The main purpose of this study is to develop a virtual reality application for social studies teaching. In the study, a design-based research model was used depending on the purpose of designing an innovative environment. Within the scope of this research method, firstly, the pre-design needs were determined, and the application was developed with the following three phases. The working group of students, teachers, and field experts. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and/or questionnaire. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques were used in this thesis. Starting with the determination of pre-design needs and addressing the virtual reality application within the scope of content and interface, as a result of three successive phases, a usable virtual reality application called "VRYurt" was developed for teaching social studies. As a result of the analysis of the needs, it was decided to develop a virtual reality application for the Central Asian Turkish states in the "Culture and Heritage" unit. Afterwards, the VRYurt virtual reality application was developed in three successive phases. According to the results obtained, while developing an instructional virtual reality application, it is important that the "content of the application is correct, usable and effective". Also, it has been seen that it is important to correctly determine the characters and objects belonging to the historical period, subject and/or environment. While developing the virtual reality application, it has been seen that the interface design / navigation decisions are another important issue as much as the content design. It is seen that there is a limited number of virtual reality application development studies for social studies teaching in the literature. In this direction, it is thought that this thesis will contribute to future studies. Keywords: Virtual Reality, Design Based Research, Social Studies Education, Instructional Technologies.