Improving Classroom Interactions with AR and VR

FREMONT, CA: Immersive technologies have aided students in understanding theoretical ideas and systems with ease, equipping them for careers with technologies like VR and AR via simulations and recreation of experiences. The technologies not only increased engagement in learning but also enhanced the capability to project concepts in students’ minds creatively.

As the Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality technology showcases benefits in the professional world, it is incorporated into universities and colleges by creating labs. Some schools even have dedicated learning centers to conduct research and experimentation in topics relevant to AR and VR.  Some of the applications of these dedicated centers for learning are listed:

1. Understanding Concepts: Universities are utilizing a Virtual Immersive Teaching and Learning (VITaL) technology, which can be availed for free in the campus by teachers and students. With the use of this learning tool, teachers have aided students in understanding previously unexplainable concepts.

2. Recreating Concepts from Past: The real issues of truth and media manipulation encouraged students from theatre, culture and media, and journalism and design to collaborate and recreate fake news from the past with Augmented Reality.

3. Stagecraft for Students: Some universities have production program working on an app to import the theater set designs created by the students. The application downloads the models created in Computer-aided Drafting class, to provide a walkthrough. 

4. Spacewalks and Virtual Museum Visits: Augmented Reality and VR are incorporated to recreate situations with added physical dimension powered by IoT, such as walks on different planets or among live artifacts in a museum, and add a physical dimension with IoT.

5. Reimagining Development: Landscape architects with the incorporation of AR have initiated designing master plans on wastelands, which are ancestral properties of tribes to encourage hope of basic amenities in the near future.

6. Clinical Care Simulations: VR is utilized for experiential learning by medical students and nurses to conduct procedures or check-ups during emergencies. The idea helps community nurses to acclimatize with rare, complex problems and become accustomed to providing appropriate responses. A test setup required is minimal but provides exposure in infinitesimal levels.