Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual reality (VR) are immersive technologies that outward images, sounds, and text using a tablet, smart eyeglass, or a smartphone camera. Virtual reality is more complex with an immersive 3D environment that can be interacted with by a person. Virtual reality uses a VR headset to immerse users in the 360-degree environment instead of projecting the images and sounds in real.
What Do AR/VR Education Statistics Say?
- Goldman Sachs has inferred in a report that the AR/VR revenue for the educational software would be around $300 million and is expected to rise up to $700 million by 2025 as the technology is accessible to educational institutes all over the world with education being the 4th biggest sector for VR investment.
- AR/VR will help students step up from memorizing and exams and facilitate them to learn through active participation.
- The educational institutions are now training the staff to study aspects of AR and VR technology to sort the best right tools to make an altogether learning experience for students as 70% of teachers use VR to simulate experiences relevant to the course material.
- VR is so fanatic technology that 97% of students would like to opt for a VR course.
AR/VR Features Making It Easy For Children To Grasp The Learning During COVID Crisis
All these features can be incorporated in the field of education especially now when the world is facing the extreme COVID crisis to make the learning enjoyable. AR/VR enabled smart boards have now replaced traditional blackboards and textbooks. AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) have been becoming the most talked about topics in the field of education.
Let’s see how!
Benefits Offered By AR/VR In Education
The education industry is welcoming changes and is getting technically inclined in recent times to teach students to cope up with the new avenues and stay up to date. AR and VR technology eases learners to learn at their own pace with more comprehension, retention, developing analytical ability, and foster creative thinking. There are also certain VR and AR-based apps introduced for helping in the process of education.
Here are some of the prime benefits of using AR and VR technology in learning:
Learning Through Interactivity
VR & AR-based applications are designed in such a way as to encourage gamification as well as interactivity in the learning process.
Immersive VR education can invoke activity in the students and makes the learning more exciting which keeps the students focused on the subject as the student himself can do something practically even for difficult topics.
With Virtual Reality, you can experience the subject in advance which makes it more compelling, effective, and knowledgable at the same time.
For example, you can:
- Travel places all over the world without even stepping out of the classroom
- Explore the depth of the ocean
- Explore the internal human body
- Time travel to an Egyptian farmer or participate in the Battle of Waterloo virtually.
All these seem much more interesting than the physical books and ultimately Fosters increased collaboration
Aids In Teaching
VR allows us to describe complicated concepts and explain them in a more practical and precise way.
Augmented and Virtual Reality education apps have an interactive audio-visual experience that can make the teaching less tedious.
With AR, you can expand the teaching possibilities with presentations, 3D design, and modeling. It helps teachers and students to construct various objects and animate them with shapes, objects, and actions for imparting practical training.
Low To No Distractions
Well-orchestrated VR experience can direct the students’ attention from distracting factors and improve amp up their concentration on the subject as everything is grasped on the screens of the smartphones and other devices which are distracting factors but can be productively used now for learning giving it a new dimension.
All these reasons make a possibility for VR Schools probability in the coming future.
Provision for Special Students
VR & AR implementation simplifies learning for students with disabilities. There have been derived solutions such as Near Sighted VR Augmented Aid that can help students with visual impairment. AR/VR applications can alter contrasts, text sizes, add audio commentary that can be of great help to students with disabilities.
There is also an app called SignAloud gloves which allow to communicate via sign language in a VR environment and translate into a human speech for better learning for these special class of students.
Some Instances Of AR/VR based Classroom Learning
In India, education companies are investing in AR/VR technologies for nursery to eighth-grade students by connecting the AR/VR journeys with course content in various subjects.
For example,
Institutions have been implementing VR techniques when a learner can learn about jungle animals by taking an expedition through a digital jungle with a smartphone app, simple cardboard VR glasses, and earphones in the classroom itself.
Students can learn about space science by looking at a virtual space created in the classroom.
Learning languages and their pronunciations correctly by watching the object in front.
Conclusion:
VR can deliver the wholesome experience and AR can take a further role in the educational process, hence both can be really useful in learning.
Both Virtual and Augmented reality technologies have numerous advantages to offer for an education system bringing innovation and interactivity in the COVID crisis times when classes are being conducted online.