The effect of using virtual museum application created with 360-degree videos in social studies course on academic success and attitudes

This research aims to examine the effect of supporting the teaching supported by a virtual museum application created with 360-degree videos and teaching as prescribed by the curriculum on students' academic success and attitudes in the 7th grade Social Studies course. In the present research, a quantitative research root was administrated with a pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design with a control group. The research study group consisted of 42 students studying in two branches of the 7th grade of a private school in Sakarya in the 2016-2017 academic year. The study group was determined as the 7C branch with 21 students as the experimental group and the 7B section with 21 students as the control group with the random assignment. In the experimental group, teaching practice was carried out by supporting the virtual museum application created with a 360-degree video in the Social Studies course. In the control group, the lesson was carried out as prescribed by the curriculum. Within the scope of the research lasting for five weeks, a virtual museum application, which was created from 10 different 360-degree videos, was used for the Living Democracy Unit in the 7th grade Social Studies curriculum developed by the researcher in the experimental group. The data were collected with the academic achievement test developed by the researcher in line with the purpose of the research, the Social Studies attitude scale developed by Çalışkan (2009), and the personal information form. SPSS 23.0 package program was used to analyze the quantitative data obtained within the scope of the research. In the data analysis, the findings were examined and discussed by Bonferroni and two-factor ANOVA test. At the end of the application process, it was found that supporting the Social Studies lesson with virtual museum applications created with 360-degree videos had a positive effect on the students' academic achievement and their attitudes towards the Social Studies lesson. At the end of the research, some suggestions were made for practice and research.