The educational sector is one of the best landscapes to try out VR and AR technology possibilities. Globally, AR and VR’s growing influence in the education market is expected to rise from $9.3 billion to 19.6 billion by 2023.
Though VR and AR gives much freedom to explore digital reality to students, there are too many facts to note while making VR and AR education content. Since it is prepared for children, it should be considered from various levels. The process is both tedious as well as something to be carried out with care and from all perspectives. The developer should consider both the target audience’s abilities and their difficulties to make the material much more effective.
AR/VR Education
The past few years have witnessed intense advancements in the use of both VR and AR technologies through various applications. Most of the schools these days have upgraded their educational methods in order to achieve better results. Implementation of VR/AR technologies is one of the most recent and advanced means of achieving improved academic performance results.
Benefits of VR and AR in Education
One of the educational sector’s major issues is ineffective explaining complicated theories and complex concepts. The science subjects are those that face this issue to a greater extend. Implementing VR/AR technology would better impact intimating the concepts and theories with students.
The Augmented reality helps to create various objects along with animating them for a better real-life experience. This would give the students a better experience in understanding facts in a much more vivid manner. It enables them to create presentations and 3-dimensional designs more impressively. It is useful for teachers to develop more creative teaching methods and students to express their innovative ideas on a variety of topics.
Benefits to the visually impaired in education
On the other hand, this technology is also highly beneficial for those impaired of vision. Those who suffice due to the disability they possess can find it effective as it could manipulate images, contrast, text size, and audio which creates a cohesive understanding of the facts much easier.
Better student engagement and understanding
VR/AR technology is important for those impaired and is important for the teachers to get the students engaged. The immersive VR technology gets the students involved in the process rather than mere listeners to elongated lectures. This involvement of the student would give them a better understanding of the subject. Thus, education becomes interesting, and knowledge can be imparted easily among students of all kinds.
Every student may have difficulties in learning certain subjects, especially those which involve a lot of imagination. The science subject that deals with atoms and celestial bodies can be viewed and learned, which will significantly impact the students’ brains, resulting in a detailed understanding of the facts.
Enables Practical Learning and involving emotions
Certain fields of education require practical learning as it makes the learning process complete. VR/AR-enabled learning can make this a reality. They aid in simulating real-world environments giving the students lifelike experiences, especially pilots, surgeons. People who train to become a pilot will have to risk their lives while attempting to fly a plane that could be avoided with VR technology. Similar would be the surgeons who can learn all about the human body and practice surgeries as in real life.
VR/AR learning allows the students to experience emotions in the process of learning. It merges our senses as well our power of thought which in turn creates an intensely powerful learning effect that aids the brains to categorize facts easily and memorize them without difficulty
Personalizing education and creating an education community
Implementing VR / AR technology in education helps to personalize it. Every student always do not have the same capacity to learn and memorize facts. This could be solved using VR technology.
Personalized learning is difficult to attain in a classroom setting. With the support of AR and VR technologies, the learner’s immediate engagement will be made possible. In case of providing survival training or rescue training as in a fire drill, the learner can be placed in an actual setting using VR technology. This would enable the individual to realize his or her actual skills as well as experience real-life-like situations. The students can access the materials of their own choice and practice them at their own pace and interest, providing a personalized experience.
Another major benefit of the AR/VR technology is to create a learning community. This helps students to connect with other students all over the world and to share information and learn together. With AR applications’ aid, they can help each other and learn difficult concepts with each other. This could also be effective as it could benefit traditional classrooms where students can interact and connect with their peers.
VR in Education: Statistics
Almost 97% of students are interested in VR education due to its interesting and innovative learning process. It seems that education is the 4th biggest sector where VR is to be successfully implemented. The expected profit in the industry is beyond expectations. It is predicted to reach 700 billion dollar industry by the year 2025. Most of the teachers, 80%, have access to VR devices and applications to be precise. Most students are familiar with the term VR and even teachers find its application highly effective and useful in their teaching process.
VR field trips
The question of cost-effectiveness always prevail in the installation and use of VR/AR technology. However, its benefits would save a lot of money for its users in many ways. One such use is the VR field trips. From any place and anytime, the learners could be engaged in virtual trips rather than visiting the desired place. Students who wish to learn the culture of Texas shall make a tour sitting inside their classrooms. They could learn about spatial inequality and celestial objects with ease and zero expense. The boundaries of the classroom are shattered with the introduction of this technology in the educational sector.
Health and VR
Does the use of it affect one’s health badly? Health is always a major concern. Studies on the ill effects of VR/AR technology on health have been less studied. This is mainly because this is a new technology that has not been used widely, which would reduce the data available for research. However, children should be considered more in terms of health. They might get addicted to the virtual world, making them forget about the real world of which they are a part. In such ways, their mental health could have tampered. Even though there aren’t proved, they might turn out to be matters of concern.
Conclusion
Both AR/ VR technologies provide better and improved opportunities in education, redefining the process of teaching and learning. The immersive experience on a large scale with less expense will eventually increase the acceptance and demand of this technology. Educators from various fields have taken up the application of this technology to provide better and detailed real-life experiences to their students