Using VR and AR to form education engaging

Digital and augmented reality, once thought to be used for entertainment, are now being used to teach schoolchildren, construction workers, and even surgeons.

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While the use of technology in the classroom has become commonplace, some companies and colleges have taken it to new heights with virtual and augmented reality.

Virtual reality and augmented reality, which were once best known for fun apps like the Pokémon Go app and Snapchat filters, are progressively being used in conjunction with conventional training. AR had an important positive effect on both duration and information retention in a new survey of 151 adults conducted by Neuro-Insight, Mindshare UK, and Zappar.

However, there are limitations, such as cost, accessibility, and user willingness, to name a few. Immersive learning, on the other hand, has a lot of potential to spice up skills and boost educational outcomes as it becomes more commonplace.

Helping surgeons practise operations

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Virtual reality is being used to train doctors before they enter the operating room. Dr. Alex Aquilina, an orthopaedic surgeon at Bristol Children's Hospital, has been creating 360-degree surgical videos using Virti's VR technology. Cameras are hidden in theatres with the permission of patients and nurses, and procedures are filmed from any angle. Patients' identities are kept anonymous, and trainee surgeons can watch on-demand with a headset or Zoom training sessions.

This process doesn't substitute real-life training but enhances it, says Aquilina. It also enables junior doctors to find out without having to return into hospital during the continued pandemic, reducing the infection risk to themselves and patients.

“When you're really keeping the knife, your in-surgery learning experiences are very valuable,” he says. “The more you know ahead of time, the better.”

The films teach trainees about the entire process, from fixing equipment and assembling joint implants to briefing staff and positioning the patient correctly. For these, video may be a simpler format than reading manuals or watching photos, says Aquilina.

In future, he plans to embed AR elements, like close-up footage of laparoscopic (keyhole) procedures, infographics and questions, where the user would be led down different filmed routes supporting their answers.

There are some technical challenges, like mitigating camera glare from the theatre’s bright lights, and ethical concerns around patient and staff consent. But Aquilina believes VR and AR have huge potential to empower patients; someone with diabetes who has witnessed a foot amputation could also be more likely to manage their condition well, for instance.

He says it helps to "demystify" the operating space. “I'm hoping that making what surgeons do more accessible would improve rehabilitation and help avoid potential disease.”

Teaching children about nature

AR apps are getting used to interact with schoolchildren and convey topics to life. The Museum Alive app, developed by Alchemy Immersive in partnership with Sir David Attenborough, allows users to put extinct animals and their natural habitats within the world by activating the user’s smartphone camera to “project” animations into their front room.

This includes other learning resources, like voiceovers, soundscapes, maps, written information and pre-recorded films. Elliot Graves, creative and technical lead at Alchemy Immersive, says that apps like this offer children agency inside a plot. “When children are actively participating, they're much more likely to retain information. Once this tech is worked into the national curriculum, it could have an enormous impact.”

Alchemy Immersive worked with Durham University to conduct school workshops to check the impact of immersive tech. Dr Noam Leshem, professor of geography, found out 11 to 14-year-olds with a VR project called Portraits of No-Man’s Land, where they checked out redefining areas of conflict in Colombia, Cyprus and France.

To be truly useful, Leshem discovered that VR should be used in conjunction with other tools such as discussion groups and worksheets. “Students were interested and enthusiastic,” he states. “However, we have no idea what will happen when the novelty of VR wears off. Getting their focus is that the initiative, ensuring VR integration into the classroom, would be more difficult.”

The technical skills gap between teachers and students also will have to be addressed before it makes its way into mainstream education. “VR headsets still appear intimidating to some teachers, albeit most students find them intuitive,” says Leshem. “Price has dropped but budgets are tight; convincing schools this is often a worthwhile investment will remain a hurdle over subsequent few years.”

Training construction workers

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The Construction Industry Training Board is investing £3 million in a number of immersive tech initiatives aimed at improving industry training. the most important is Project Convert, which delivers four differing types of coaching to 6 UK-wide colleges: VR building, where students construct from scratch; VR scaffolding and dealing at heights; VR drone training, for site surveyance; and AR woodworking and paint-spraying, which includes elements sort of a vibrating magnetised table to duplicate the sensation of physical pressure during carpentry.

Gareth Evans, centre manager at Construction Wales Innovation Centre (CWIC), which is leading on Project Convert, says students aren't normally exposed to those skills before employment thanks to cost or health and safety concerns. “By using VR 1st, they will not crash real drones into trees,” he says. “They will not lose fingers as they go to physical craft devices. It assists them in learning from their errors.”

The technology is getting used by students at the University of Wales Trinity David, where CWIC is predicated. Alongside helping them avoid accidents or costly building alterations, the range of coaching opens their eyes to different jobs, says tutor and landscape gardener Sheila Holmes, and allows her to assess students more accurately.

For a minority susceptible to vertigo or claustrophobia, for instance, VR experiences like performing at heights or in confined spaces won't be appropriate, says Evans. But the biggest hurdle is in encouraging less tech-savvy educators to undertake it.

The films teach trainees about the entire process, from fixing equipment and assembling joint implants to briefing staff and positioning the patient correctly. For these, video may be a simpler format than reading manuals or watching photos, says Aquilina.

He aims to incorporate AR features in the future, such as close-up videos of laparoscopic (keyhole) procedures, infographics, and questions, in which the user is guided down various filmed routes to help their responses.

There are some technical challenges, like mitigating camera glare from the theatre’s bright lights, and ethical concerns around patient and staff consent. But Aquilina believes VR and AR have huge potential to empower patients; someone with diabetes who has witnessed a foot amputation could also be more likely to manage their condition well, for instance.

He says it helps to "demystify" the operating space. “I'm hoping that making what surgeons do more accessible would improve rehabilitation and help avoid any possible disease.”

Exploring ancient civilizations

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The Giza Project may be a digital archaeology initiative based at Harvard University, which curates records of the Giza Pyramids in ancient Egypt. Anthropology and Egyptology students can explore the 5,000-year-old civilization through VR simulations, either via a headset, a university lab or a web video version. Tutors also used Zoom to share 360-degree videos during the lockdown.

The students can undertake virtual conservation work like rebuilding architecture or repainting tombs. they will build architecture from scratch using evidence like studies of parallel buildings. Avatars are often placed in scenes to offer a way of scale and context. The project both helps students visualize how ancient Egypt would have looked and offered them opportunities to contribute to digital research with their own builds.

It also challenges students to think about ethical issues, like the accuracy of portrayals of ancient Egypt in modern media like film and gaming, encouraging them to be more analytical. “The VR helps them differentiate between theory and archaeologically attested designs,” says Harvard Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian. “Ultimately, it helps them check out Egyptian civilization through the lens of its most vital site.”