Experimenting Immersive Learning in the classroom
The field of education has always aimed at expanding their learning methods to step out of their generic tendencies.
Particularly, their lack of practical application results in a mainly theoretical approach.
Thanks to the exponential growth of the new technologies, we came across new tools allowing us to go beyond the theory and improve learning efficiency.
Bold innovations, such as Virtual Reality, have launched the education field into a new era: EdTech. EdTech is defined by the use of hardware and software in order to enhance teaching methods in the educational sector. One of its more popular forms is Immersive Learning.
Why use Virtual Reality in the classroom
Immersive Learning is a teaching technique combining theory and practice. It allows us to recreate the reality of the field thanks to 360° photos and videos in which we add pedagogical interactions. This method is, therefore, looking to improve and broaden the already existing teaching techniques and resources of the teachers.
Imagine having the ability to have students travel through time and around the world, or even use voice recognition in order to learn new languages.
The University of Sunderland has recently led a scientific study around the best use cases of Virtual Reality in the education field. This study conducted several experiments opposing Immersive Learning to “conventional” schoolings.
Classic teaching vs. VR training
360° video vs. video course
The first experiment aimed at evaluating the overall effectiveness of learning in Virtual Reality. To this end, scientists equally divided a group of 40 med students: each group was taught how to tie a reef knot through two techniques. The first group followed a course in a 360° video and the second group followed a regular video course. After the final test, results showed that 17 subjects from the VR group were able to successfully tie the knot against only 12 in the second group.
Another experiment was conducted on a group of 110 college students. The subjects were tested on their knowledge of wood structure twice. First after following a course using classic learning techniques, and a second time after exploring an 8 minutes VR simulation of a house in mid-construction. At the end of the experiment, the students showed a 64% improvement with VR.
Simulation VR vs. PowerPoint
The next experiment of this study focused on theory vs practice. A class of primary school students was split into 2 groups of 29 children. The first group followed a course on the water cycle via a PowerPoint while the second group followed the same course on a VR simulator.
Thus, one group learned through pure theory whereas the other was basing itself on usability and experimentation. After collecting the feedback from the students, scientists noticed in the VR group that 67% of the subjects found the application useful in their understanding of the subject and 95% of them expressed great enthusiasm with a desire to repeat the experiment on other subjects. Overall, the study showed a better engagement from the apprentices with Immersive Learning.
The results of this study prove the efficiency of Virtual Reality in the learning process of the students (memorization, anchor, practice, emotions). The question now is, how to deploy Immersive Learning in the classroom today?
How to deploy VR in the classroom?
There are several ways to bring VR to the classrooms, whether it is with mobile, PC, headsets, or tablets… Which one is better, cheaper, and the most suitable?
With Uptale Immersive Learning Platform, create and share VR training modules on all devices: cardboards (mobile-based), headsets (computer-based), phones, tablets, and PCs. The latest hardware may be hard to access depending on the resources of the teachers, but a lot of more accessible alternatives assures great efficiency as well.
Which device for which user?
VR can reach a large range of age and some devices seem to be more suitable regarding the learners (age, size, in classroom or remote…). The study has shown great compatibility of the mobile-based VR on both children in primary schools and advanced professionals. If you want to share it at scale and in remote, devices such as phones, tablets and PCs will be a great choice.
If you want to share it with a smaller scale and experiment Virtual Reality training at its best with your students, then VR headsets or cardboards are the most suitable.
Finally, If you have a high quality of details and a lot of interactions, VR headsets will be best. Uptale already assists many schools in their Virtual Reality deployment. Get in touch with an Immersive Learning Specialist to learn more.
At last, technical questions and logistics constraints brought by Virtual Reality do not in any way take away this technology’s great potential. Several schools and universities already made the jump with Uptale: Harvard University, Cambridge University, and NUS are already deploying their modules to their students and faculties. Discover our use cases in the Education sector.
We have yet to explore all the benefits of Immersive Learning by democratizing this tool at bigger scales. Of course, a balance between what can and cannot be taught with Virtual Reality has to be established. Nevertheless, the huge potential of this innovation can’t be ignored because, today, its only limit is our imagination.