Abstract:

This study investigated the effect of Virtual Reality–Based Instruction (VRBI) on Business Education students’ achievement in office automation in selected state universities in Ekiti and Ondo States, Nigeria. A quasi-experimental pretest–posttest non-equivalent control group design was adopted. The population comprised 759 Business Education students across three state universities offering Business Education programmes in the two states. A sample of 198 students was drawn from one randomly selected university in Ekiti State and the only state university offering Business Education in Ondo State. Intact classes were assigned to experimental (n = 113) and control (n = 85) groups. The intervention lasted five weeks. Data were collected using the Office Automation Achievement Test (OASAT), which yielded a KR-20 reliability coefficient of .86. Research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation, while hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) at a .05 level of significance. Results revealed a significant effect of VRBI on students’ achievement, F (1,195) = 82.23, p < .001, partial η² = .297. Gender had no significant influence on achievement among students exposed to VRBI, F (1,110) = 1.38, p = .243, partial η² = .012. The study concludes that VRBI significantly enhances office automation achievement irrespective of gender. It is recommended that VR technology be integrated into Business Education curricula in Nigerian universities to bridge the graduate employability gap.