INTRODUCTION

Virtual reality (VR) is becoming more and more popular in addressing the learning needs of the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) population. The relevant technologies allow educators to create highly interactive and immersive learning contents. Many previous research studies have shown that by simulating real-life environments and/or occasions, the VR learning contents can be effective, safe, and embarrassment-free for people with ASD to learn and practice various skills, including emotional
skills (e.g., emotion recognition and regulation [1] [2]), social adaptation skills (e.g., social interaction and communication [3][4]), vocational skills (e.g., interview skills [5]), etc. Since VR devices and installations are increasingly accessible, recent studies prefer to deliver the VR learning content via special VR devices and/or installations rather than monitor-based desktop VR [6][7]. Specifically, these devices and installations usually provide certain levels of motion tracking to enable user
interactions and stereoscopic display technologies to enable depth perception, both of which aim to achieve better experience and much more immersive multisensory stimulations.

Among the VR devices and installation, the latest generation of VR headsets, such as Oculus Rift™ and HTC VIVE™, seem to be the most balanced solution for delivering VR learning contents in various settings. These headsets are typically connected to rendering computers and are coupled with hand-held controllers, which hand motions and gestures tracking, enabling very natural user-VR interactions. When being compared with VR installations such as Cave Automatic Virtual Environment
(CAVE) [8] used in Ip et al. in [4], VR headsets are much more portable, require less space to set up, and are able to provide similar levels of immersion and interactivity, while the costs for first-time procurement and subsequent maintenance are much lower, making them a more feasible choice in most VR applications. Studies on using VR headset as a tool for delivering learning contents to the ASD population can be traced back to the 1990s when Strickland et al. conducted a pilot study on a
7.5-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy with ASD [9]. Results show that the children can “accept a VR helmet (headset)”, are able to “identify familiar objects and qualities of these objects” and are able to “locate and move toward objects” in VR. Because the research study was conducted in the early 1990s when the headsets are usually heavy and bulky, and the graphic rendering capability of the computers is very limited, the latest VR headsets should be able to provide better user experience if
they are used on the ASD population. In 2016, Newbutt et al. conducted a pilot study on the use of a VR headset in ASD population [10]. 29 participants with ASD were asked to experience 5 “off-the-shelf” VR contents using Oculus Rift developers’ version. The interactions were achieved via Xbox gamepad. Results show that participants reported very minimal negative effects wearing the headset and the headset was well accepted by the participants. However, there are a few things yet to be explored if  we  wish  to  deliver  VR  learning  to the  Autism population using  VR headsets.  First, in  the  above  study,  the  participants  interacted with  the VR  contents  only  via  the  Xbox gamepad.  For  first-time users,  the gamepad is  not very  intuitive to  use.  This  could  greatly limit the  ways  of interactions between the participants and the VR contents, which may partially contribute to the second limitation; that is most of the “off-the-shelf” VR contents are  lack  of  a set of well-defined tasks  to  be  carried  out by  the  participants.  The  participants therefore  mainly experienced the  contents  passively.  Whether and how they are able to complete a set of learning tasks in the VR environment is yet to be explored.  In  this  paper,  we  report  a  case  study  on  delivering  VR learning  for  children  with  ASD  using  VR headset. The  study aims to further explore the feasibility of headset-enabled VR  learning for children on  the  spectrum  with  various  comorbidities  and  requiring  different  levels  of  assistance.  The methodology,  including  the environment  and  setting  where  the  experiment  was  conducted,  the  VR learning contents being delivered using the Oculus Rift headset, and demographics of the participants, is addressed  in section  2. The  results are  reported  as  cases  in  section  3.  We conclude the study in section 4.

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