Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate 3D virtual reality (VR) situated activity, preschool reality and how the lecture teaching method affects technology university students' learning outcome. Design/methodology/approach: The quasi-experimental design is used. Participants are 144 students in three classes who all take Child Development Assessment course. Research instruments include 3D VR animation, preschool live video and child development as the case. One class attended 3D VR situated activities, another observed preschool live video and the other takes a traditional lecture class. Learning outcomes were measured by two paper-and-pencil tests in different times and with one performance assessment. In the writing test, mechanical and meaningful questions were included. Findings: Major findings of this study are, first, that the auxiliary learning of 3D VR is better than the real-life situation. Second, situational learning activities can enhance participant performance in context-based questions. In summary, this study found that well-organized 3D VR animation is more effective than live situation learning, especially for context-based course content. Research limitations/implications: The lack of random assignment into test groups leads to non-equivalent test groups which can limit the generalizability of the results to other student population. Practical implications: The findings of this study suggest that teachers can gradually arrange learning activities, from 3D VR to a real applied workplace; situated learning activities are more likely to support the transfer knowledge to real-life problem solving. Originality/value: The findings suggest that teachers in arranging the classroom context activities can be the first to use 3D VR before actual reality to avoid novices getting lost in the complicated real situations. If learning activities can be arranged gradually, from 3D VR to real applied workplace, situated learning activities can help students to deploy their newly acquired knowledge and skills in real-life problem solving. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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