Virtual reality: Could it be the subsequent big tool for education?

 

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•   In the field of education, virtual reality training is becoming more common.

• Students and teachers benefit from VR because it provides a consistent, repeatable environment for teaching.

• A study in VR training has shown it's simpler than traditional teaching at developing technical, practical, and socio-emotional skills.

• Students who completed VR training also showed a 20% boost in confidence after finishing their courses, according to the analysis.

During COVID-19, Walter Garcia was completing his technical degree in nursing education. His technical university closed its doors to face-to-face classes eight months before his graduation and quickly switched to virtual teaching. Fortunately, Walter had no trouble obtaining access to a computer and the internet in order to complete his classes. Walter was worried, however, because he would have to miss valuable practical classes aimed at practicing his professional skills in patient triage and emergency evacuation. Using WebEx or reading a manual, how will he develop these skills? Walter was disappointed and concerned about having to complete his degree with these crucial ability gaps.

Fortunately for Walter, his lab teacher, William O’Donovan, was savvy in technology and learned a few computer game applications employed by the medical industry to develop nurses’ technical skills to reply to medical emergencies. After having the school of nursing dean's agreement, William purchased Head Mounting Display (HMD) headsets and licenses that might allow his students access to the present immersive medical emergency simulator. After giving students the right training to use the tech, students got access to the present virtual course. The course might be taken at a delegated room at the college’s library, or students could borrow the headsets and check out this simulation experience reception. Through the simulator, Walter was, after all, ready to enter a virtual ER and be exposed firsthand to medical emergencies that would emulate vividly real-life situations.

Students are gaining more access to virtual reality training.

Virtual Reality training is usually referred to as the method of learning during a simulated or artificial environment. VR training has existed within the realm of education for over half a century but has dramatically expanded over the past fifteen years as VR simulators are getting less costly to develop and increasingly realistic. Computer game-based training has recently been used in a variety of educational settings, especially in health and safety, engineering, and technical education. Numerous studies assessing the utilization of immersive training in education yielded promising leads to educational outcomes.

In some educational fields, the event of adequate cognitive, technical, and socio-emotional skills remains a challenge for trainees and their tutors, partly due to the limited availability of hands-on training or access to appropriate content and learning situations. Even before the pandemic, it's become particularly challenging for education systems to provide learning opportunities that provide students with hands-on pedagogical experiences necessary to develop practical skills, especially for programs that need the utilization of laboratories. As a response, educators are beginning to believe VR simulations to develop learning experiences that might otherwise not be easily accessible to students. Virtual reality simulations will provide students with realistic training opportunities without putting them under pressure or putting them in danger, while also allowing them to practise several times. Also, VR simulations can provide students access to situations and learning environments (such as traveling within a cell, simulated scenarios for speechmaking, among others) that might rather be very difficult or impossible to access. Such opportunities can accelerate students' learning curve during a simulated environment, reproducing real-life conditions and situations without time or space limitations and far fewer risks than real environments.

Virtual Reality training offers many pedagogical advantages

VR simulations have the advantage of providing students and teachers with a consistent, repeatable environment in which to learn. Gamification, success metrics, and collaborative functionality (using avatars) can all be embedded in virtual reality simulations, allowing for continuous peer engagement, constructive learning, enjoyment, and performance feedback–all of which improve proficiency-based training. Constructivism is a theoretical paradigm that is often used to facilitate the application of learning in virtual environments. Students learn by building knowledge and integrating it into their current knowledge system, according to constructivism. As a result, constructivist learning environments will boost active learning, motivation, interactivity, and personalization. VR training simulations are often associated with increased student motivation and appearance, two channels by which they can affect student learning. As a result, virtual reality environments are regarded as pedagogical tools with the ability to enhance student learning.

Is computer game training successful at developing student’s skills?

A recent study, supported by the Korea International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Partnerships Facility provides a scientific review of the extent to which VR training can successfully develop students’ skills across different education fields [Meta-analysis assessing the consequences of computer game training on student learning and skills development]. The research is based on an analysis of 92 separate studies that use rigorous tests to determine the impact of VR training on student learning. Figure 1 presents descriptive statistics of the experiments included within the study. Most experiments were conducted in education settings in topics associated with health and safety and virtual labs for engineering, science, and technical education.

Results in the study show that VR training is, on average, simpler than traditional training, developing students' technical, practical, and socio-emotional skills. Results are particularly promising within the fields of health and safety, engineering, and technical education. generally, results reveal that students exposed to VR training, score higher in learning assessments, than students exposed to an equivalent curricular content delivered through traditional training methods.

Students who received VR instruction scored higher on socio-emotional skills tests after completing their training than their peers who received conventional instruction, according to the findings. The analysis also indicates that students exposed to VR training are more efficient using inputs, time, and/or avoiding performance errors than students exposed to traditional training, per additional hour of instruction.

 

The main results of the study are often summarized as follows:

• A total of 72 experiments show that VR training is equally or more conducive to enhance student learning outcomes than traditional training.

• For each additional hour of coaching, students exposed to VR training score 3 percent higher in learning assessments, in comparison to students exposed to an equivalent curricular content delivered through traditional training methods.

• Students who complete VR training report 20% higher levels of confidence and self-efficacy towards learning after they complete their courses.

• Students who are exposed to VR training are, on average, up to 30 percent more efficient (using inputs, time, and/or avoiding performance errors) than students exposed to traditional training per additional hour of instruction.

More evidence is required on the consequences of VR training in developing countries

Most studies assessing the consequences of VR training on learning are conducted in OECD countries, notably within US, UK, and Canada. As such, the promising results of VR training might not necessarily hold altogether educational settings because several factors necessary for VR training to succeed (e.g., connectivity, availability of kit. In many developing-country educational institutions, IT help, students' and teachers' mastery of critical digital skills, and so on) are not guaranteed. Also, it'll be essential to still assess the cost-effectiveness of VR training. While VR training's cost-effectiveness is probably going to vary counting on many parameters like course duration, field, and sort of technology used, it's not always assured. Indeed, this sort of instruction might be cost-effective because it provides savings compared to other alternative multimedia or traditional laboratories. VR training development requires software development and equipment, maintenance, support, and updates, which require sustained investments. To date, not many studies assessing the consequences of VR training has focused on conducting a cost-benefit or cost-effectiveness analysis of VR instruction compared to traditional training methods. Having more such information is going to be crucial to assess the scalability potential of VR training across education systems.

In summary, VR training tends to be an efficient mechanism of instruction to develop students’ skills and has proved to be a valuable tool for college kids like Walter, especially amid COVID-19. Walter received employment offer to help the ER at his the local hospital, where he will surely encounter similar situations to those he was exposed to when taking the VR training. Moving forward, it'll be important to still assess the pros and cons of using VR for pedagogical instruction for various subjects also as its cost-effectiveness and scalability.