Role of AR And VR in Education Industry | TechXR

Technology has been a great boon in taking education out of the rut of chalk-talk and rote learning of yore. The education system needs new technologies in order to stay relevant in the ever-changing world and be effective at realizing its mission. Augmented and Virtual Reality is the next logical step in the evolution of the Education System.

Education nowadays is being customized according to the needs of students, where the role of the teachers is changing to learning facilitators. Teachers are now focusing on deep learning with ultimate clarity. To top it off, Augmented and Virtual Reality technologies are being deployed for optimizing learning outcomes through the use of simulation, 3D imagery, and advanced audio-visual effects. Both technologies are catching on fast in the education sector, according to a Fortune BI report, the global augmented and virtual reality in education market size stood at 656.6 million USD in 2018 and is projected to reach 13,098.2 million USD by 2026, with an annual growth rate of 42.9%.

Applications

Let’s look at the Role of AR and VR in the Education Industry:

Medical Sciences: This technology can bring incredible transformations in the field of medicine. For instance, dissecting an entire human cadaver in VR allows students to zoom into and explore body parts on a cellular level. In internal surveys, 87% of students who have taken Charles Struts University’s distance anatomy class say VR has helped them understand spatial relationships better than traditional two-dimensional resources. Spatial cognition is particularly crucial in medicine, helping doctors understand everything from where a patient’s organs are located to how anatomical structures are connected.

History and Anthropology: Virtual tours to historical monuments and archaeological sites in far-off places are enriching the learning experience of history, archaeology, and political science students. For example, one could explore and examine ancient Egyptian ruins without travelling internationally. Another instance is the 1943 Berlin Blitz in 360° produced for the BBC by Immersive VR Education. It uses real-life footage from the nighttime raid of Nazi Germany to help students understand what it was like to live through a significant historical event.

Business Studies: Different economic and business models can be explained to students through the use of AR/VR in a much better manner. In business education, the experiences of real buying-selling, the in-store experiences, production line, supply chain, etc could be made much more lucid with the immersive nature of VR and the elevated realistic nature of AR. The technology comes in very handy in making students corporate-ready.

Architecture & Engineering: The most widespread use of AR/VR is witnessed in the fields of architecture and engineering. Using VR technology, the designers are able to not just better implement their vision by creating to-scale 3-D models but are pushing the boundaries of physics and mechanics by creating the most intuitive and innovative designs.

Meteorology: Predicting weather conditions would be much easier through augmented reality. For example, it can be used to create a tornado, then bring the funnel right into the workspace. One can also experience these destructive storms close up in an immersive environment to predict the intensity through VR.

Military Training: Military education involves lots of training processes. Sometimes it could be first aid safety training or the training dealing with dangerous mega weapons or even driving fighter planes. This process of training can be simplified using VR technology. One can get trained in immersive virtual environment simulations so that the entire process is simplified.

The benefits of Augmented Reality in higher education

Continuous practice and immersive learning are key to ensuring a top-quality university education.

Practical learning: AR-VR ensures learning in its practical sense. The learning experience is elevated to a different level where a student can directly visualize the processes, which ensures clarity of concepts and retention of facts in a much better manner. For example, The SkyView app lets students explore the stars, constellations, satellites, and planets just by pointing their mobile devices at the sky.

Motivating: This technology gives the boost required to the students by facilitating interactive and immersive experiences of what they’re studying in the world around them. This helps learners get the most out of lectures.

Better access to content: Students can access educational materials on the go which ensures that there is no load of maintaining them separately.

Distance learning made easy: Teachers can set gamified tasks and organize virtual explorations or practice sessions even if their students are at home. All students need are their mobile devices.

The Implementational Challenge

Cost: Though an AR-VR education platform can transform the learning process exceptionally, the question of the cost-effectiveness of implementing it is what poses a practical challenge. The pricy devices used to implement this technology are one of the key factors why this technology is not reaching the masses, especially in a nation like India. Although there are a few cost-effective devices available like Google Cardboard, they are not interactive enough.

Content Development: One of the big hurdles to the wide implementation of AR and VR solutions in the educational industry is the lack of availability of content as it takes a lot of effort from both the developers’ and the educators’ ends to create quality AR-VR content that will cater to the needs of educational programs.

Conclusion

Devising an effective solution to this issue is essential to benefit from this amazing technology. Some of the emerging startups are on the mission to make the AR-VR tech accessible to the common man by creating pocket-friendly and interactive devices which shall be very helpful, in the field of education especially. One of them is TechXR Innovations which has created a patented VR device called Sense XR which provides six degrees of freedom in the Virtual world. Yet TechXR developers’ Cube is another cost-effective cardboard device that helps to study 3D models in augmented reality. The company also provides i-HUB IIT Roorkee-certified courses in AR-VR development at affordable rates through which one can learn working in this technology. Click here to learn more about the AR-VR courses offered by TechXR.