Role of AR/VR in the education system: How technology is shaping India’s learning space

Read on to know how Unity Technologies, the market-leading platform for developing a broad range of applications in the field of real-time 3D, and AR/VR, is shaping up the education sector.

What learning experience would you prefer: a chapter in a book telling you about Ancient Rome or a completely immersive virtual tour of an ancient Roman town? Most likely, you’d go for a Virtual Reality (VR) tour and so will millions of students all over the world.

VR can be used to teach lots of things, from history to human anatomy.

Now imagine that you want to teach biology to children; needless to say, getting them interested in the learning process can be difficult.

But there’s a way out – you can use an Augmented Reality (AR) mobile app through which students will direct their smartphone cameras at images in their books and virtual objects will appear on smartphone screens.

Educators can use augmented reality to teach whatever subject they need – from the alphabet to geography to chemistry.

Role of Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Virtual Reality in education

AI, VR, AR are the realities of the future education system. Classroom learning is undergoing change at an unprecedented rate. Technology is making its way to the classroom, increasing the interactive elements that many students are benefitting from.

Students today are already familiar with various technologies, which is why computerized tools and apps make sense in a classroom setting.

One study among marketing students has shown that the introduction of technology makes 87 per cent of students more likely to attend class and 72 per cent of them more likely to participate.

Technology is the biggest factor impacting Indian education now, with digital content and classrooms, online assessments and cloud-based platforms augmenting the academic and administrative processes of the K-12 sector.

Experiential learning techniques, the use of artificial intelligence in education, and personalised learning techniques are some of the major trends which will continue to revolutionise the Indian education system in 2019 as well.

Experiential learning is being implemented in India in the form of virtual labs, social media platforms, virtual and augmented reality tools, and gamification of learning.

1. Gamification of learning is an effective pedagogy which maximises student motivation and engagement by integrating game elements in learning environments.

2. Virtual labs are interactive environments for creating and conducting simulated experiments based on real-world phenomena so that students can interact with an experimental apparatus or other activity via a computer interface.

3. This eliminates the problem of accessibility as well as the lack of physical infrastructures for lab-based learning, especially in science subjects.

4. VR allows students using e-learning platforms on mobile devices to directly interact with study material. This keeps their engagement levels high and motivates them to learn more and better.

5. On the other hand, AR facilitates teachers and trainers in performing tasks, they previously haven’t or cannot, in a safe environment.

Together, all of these are engaging students in ways like never before and are poised to become a lot more widespread in their usage and impact in the future.