  The State of Emergency declaration in Japan due to the COVID-19 pandemic
affected many aspects of society in the country, much like the rest of the
world. One sector that felt its disruptive impact was education. As educational
institutions raced to implement emergency remote teaching (ERT) to continue
providing the learning needs of students, some have opened to innovative
interventions. This paper describes a case of ERT where Filipino vocabulary was
taught to a class of Japanese students taking Philippine Studies in a Japanese
university using a cognitive innovation based on virtual reality, an immer-sive
technology often researched for immersion and presence. Students were divided
into three groups to experience six lessons designed around virtual reality
photo-based tours at different immersion levels. While the effect of immersion
on satisfaction was not found to be statistically significant, presence and
satisfaction were found to be correlated. Despite challenges that were
encountered, benefits like enjoyment, increased engagement , and perceived
learning were reported by the students. Our findings exemplify how emerging
multisensory technologies can be used to enhance affective and cognitive
dimensions of human experience while responding to gaps created by the spatial
limitations of remote learning.
