Abstract—The study set out to examine the actual and
desired needs of Thai high school physics teachers in the 2021
academic year from a sample of 44 teachers in Thailand’s
northeastern Surin Province. Also, assessment was undertaken
concerning each teacher’s ‘order of needs’ from the 41 items
presented for evaluation to the teachers. Moreover, there were
three main categories in the study’s assessments. These were the
teachers’ opinions on the use of 3-dimension virtual learning
(3DVL) teaching media in physics for, 1) a mechanics
laboratory, 2) an electromagnetism laboratory, 3) and a wave,
sound, and light laboratory. The questionnaire was examined
by five experts with a confidence value of 0.97. The data were
analyzed using descriptive statistics including the mean and
standard deviation. Moreover, a modified version of the
priority needs index (PNIModified) was used to assess the
‘order of needs’ of each teacher in teaching a 3DVL. The results
of the study revealed that physics teachers believed that the
overall readiness in teaching and learning management of the
three groups of physics laboratories were at a moderate level.
The teachers also felt that the need for computer-assisted
teaching materials and 3DVL science and physics laboratories
for high school students was at a high level in all three
categories. Concerning each teacher’s ‘order of needs,’ it was
determined that the top five teaching needs were for the
spectral studies of hot gases (1), followed by teaching parallax
(2), the need to teach light interference patterns (3), the
polarization of light (4) and then light diffraction and
diffraction grating (5).
Index Terms—Augmented reality, immersive environments,
priority needs index, Thailand, virtual reality.
Choojit Sarapak, Surat Sukman, Prayut Kong-In, Khunapat Sonsrin,
Oranuch Nakchat, Jutapol Jumpatam, and Jutamas Yoomark are with
Surindra Rajabhat University, Thailand.
*Correspondence: suratsukman.srru@yahoo.com
Cite: Choojit Sarapak, Surat Sukman*, Prayut Kong-In, Khunapat Sonsrin, Oranuch Nakchat, Jutapol Jumpatam, and Jutamas Yoomark, "The Physics Classroom in an Online 3D Virtual World: A Thai High School Teacher Needs Analysis," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 93-101, 2023.
Copyright © 2023 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).