Yoshimura, AndrewBorst, Christoph W.Argelaguet, Ferran and McMahan, Ryan and Sugimoto, Maki2020-12-012020-12-012020978-3-03868-111-31727-530Xhttps://doi.org/10.2312/egve.20201259https://diglib.eg.org:443/handle/10.2312/egve20201259We study student experiences for VR-based remote lectures using a social VR platform, evaluating both desktop and headsetbased viewing in a real-world setting. Student ratings varied widely. Headset viewing produced higher presence overall. Strong negative correlations between headset simulator sickness and ratings of co-presence, overall experience, and some other factors suggest that comfortable users experienced additional benefits of headset VR, but other users did not. In contrast, correlations were not strong for desktop viewing, and it appears to be a good alternative in case of headset problems. We can predict that future headsets will bring benefits to more students, as visual stability and comfort are improving. Most students report preferring a mix of headset and desktop viewing. We additionally report student opinions comparing VR to other class technologies, identifying difficulties and distractions, evaluating avatar features and factors of avatar movement, and identifying positive and negative aspects of the VR approaches. This provides a foundation for future development of VR-based remote instruction.Human centered computingVirtual reality10.2312/egve.2020125951-59