Examining the impact of twenty-minute virtual reality applications on recreational benefit

The study aims to determine the benefits that Virtual Reality applications provide to students of the Faculty of Sports Sciences in terms of recreation and their attitudes towards virtual reality. In the study, students were participated with VR (Virtual Reality) glasses, actively in one application and passively observing their surroundings in another. The Recreation Benefit scale and the Virtual Reality Attitude scale were used as measurement tools in the study. Additionally, students were involved in two different activities with virtual reality glasses, and the results were evaluated accordingly. 33 students from the Faculty of Sports Sciences at Trakya University Kırkpınar participated in the study. The Recreation Benefit Scale, developed by Ho in 2008 and whose Turkish validity and reliability study was conducted in 2018 by Beyza Merve Akgül, Ezgi Ertüzün, and Suat Karaküçük (with a Cronbach's Alpha value of .83 and internal consistency coefficients for the three sub-dimensions ranging from .80 to .86), and the Virtual Reality Attitude Scale, developed and validated in 2023 by F. Gizem Karaoğlan Yılmaz, Ramazan Yılmaz, Ke Zang, and Ahmet Berk Üstün (with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.92 and a test-retest reliability of 0.94 for the attitude measurement tool), were used in the study. The Recreation Benefit levels of the participants were examined along with the sub-dimensions of Physical, Social, and Psychological benefits, as well as their Attitudes towards Virtual Reality. As a result of comparing the first and second measurement values of the sub-dimensions of the Recreation Benefit Scale and the scores of the Virtual Reality Attitude Scale in the experimental and control groups, it was determined that the physical benefit scores in the first measurement were significantly higher in the control group compared to the experimental group; in the second measurement, the scores of the Virtual Reality Attitude Scale were significantly lower in the control group compared to the experimental group. When comparing the first measurement scores of the Recreation Benefit Scale sub-dimensions and the Virtual Reality Attitude Scale according to gender, it was determined that the social benefit scores were significantly higher in males compared to females. No significant difference was found in other comparisons. In terms of physical benefits and Virtual Reality attitudes, the interaction effect was not significant, but the group effect was significant; therefore, it can be said that the perspective of recreational benefits developing through physical benefits and VR attitudes were significantly different in the experimental group compared to the control group, but this difference did not change before and after playing the game. In the analyses conducted between the experimental and control groups regarding Recreational Benefits and Virtual Reality Attitudes, it was determined that the recreational benefit perspectives related to social benefits and the overall recreational benefit perspectives of the participants significantly increased in the group that played games with Virtual Reality before and after the experiment.