Leveraging Extended Reality for Quality Education and Classroom Atmosphere in Rural Regions of China

Despite access to quality education being essential for all, children and youth living in remote rural areas still struggle to gain the same opportunities as their urban counterparts. They face barriers that hinder their access to quality learning and classroom atmosphere. This study aimed to investigate the potential of leveraging extended reality to enhance quality education and classroom atmosphere in rural regions. A small-scale investigation was conducted to examine the existing urban-rural schools’ educational quality (Stage 1), then mixed methods were employed to investigate a total of 70 rural students (aged 10–16) in rural China, to examine differences between extended reality-assisted education and traditional classroom education (Stage 2). The results showed that students believed their traditional class was useful, but they favoured extended reality-based education. It was concluded that extended reality-based education can be a creative approach to improve classroom atmosphere and increase educational quality in underdeveloped rural areas.