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Virtual Reality in Education

Gary Sullivan

Towson University
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Abstract

Virtual Reality in education is up and coming trend in technology with the potential to change

the way students and instructors experience both the world and the classroom. This paper will

examine three main topics related to VR in education, including the feasibility of incorporating

VR experiences and technology in the classroom, the potential that VR technology provides to

instructors and students, and the practical uses of VR tech today.

The Potential of Virtual Reality in Education

Virtual Reality is ultimately a way for students and instructors to escape the confines of

the everyday school environment. Whether that entails offering students the chance to visit other

countries, worlds, or times, the technology is evolving to the point where setting a defined limit

is quickly becoming impossible. Current implementation of VR tech can have people experience

anything from a vertigo inducing roller-coaster ride, to swimming underneath oceans filled with

kaleidoscopes of color, creating a city of their own making, or examining the inside of a human

body in jaw-dropping 4k resolution.

For educators, the sky is the limit for the practical implementation of VR in the

classroom. Dependent on the content being taught, there are a variety of interesting and engaging

ways to utilize this technology. First, we must differentiate between the types of Virtual Reality

that are available at the current time. Laura Freina at the Institute for Educational Technology in

Genova, Italy describes it as follows: "Two different kinds of VR can be identified: non-

immersive and immersive. The former is a computer-based environment that can simulate places

in the real or imagined worlds; the latter takes the idea even further by giving the perception of

being physically present in the non-physical world."

The first type of VR experiences she describes is one more people are familiar with. Non-

immersive VR is something almost everyone has some type of familiarity with, notably video

games. Essentially, they are experiences where the user interacts with a computer which

generates a real or imagined world. Everyone who has seen or watched a video game being

played is familiar with this concept of being transported to a faraway kingdom, the future, space,

or back in time to important historical events. Whether that takes the form of storming

Normandy beach in a World War II style video game, or role playing as a wizard or knight in a

online MMO-RPG, the user is transported through the screen to a new and different

environment. This type of Virtual Reality is most likely not what people think of when the term

VR is used but applies in this sense. Virtual Reality is ultimately just a reality that is not our own

at the current time. It can be based in historical fact, fiction, fantasy, or anything that creators can

imagine.

This first type of VR has many applications for education. While the clear majority of

video games take liberty with facts, you can often find students have knowledge of events that

have occurred in history through the fact they have experienced it virtually. The vast majority of

students in K-12 education have not been taught about World War II, but have background

knowledge of people, places, and events from this time period through tertiary knowledge

attained through playing in virtual spaces like these games. Many students have already

experienced playing through one of these kinds of virtual environments, even as far back as 20

years ago. Shooting aliens by typing words on screen, or by solving math problems was a

common trend in computer labs in the early 2000's. This environment has evolved, and the

available experiences have evolved along with it.

This potential is fully realized in the second type of Virtual Reality mentioned above.

Fully immersive VR tech is a new trend that not many people have had the ability to test and

explore yet due to several factors, one of which is feasibility/cost, as well as development of

educational experiences on a new platform. Fully immersive VR is something you cannot

describe to someone who has yet to experience it. The feel of being literally transported to a new

reality, to turn your head in real life in your bedroom while simultaneously turning your head in

a field of open flowers in Medieval Europe is truly awe inspiring, even to adults. The truly

unbound potential of fully immersive VR tech is something that will change the way students

learn and experience content across the board in education in the future. As an example, consider

a somewhat basic immersive VR experience available today in Google Earth VR. Google Earth

is a somewhat simple program that allows users to navigate their hometown, state, country, or

even the globe at the click of a mouse. They can use Streetview to get real images of life in areas

anywhere around the globe. Now imagine how different it must feel to get a view into life in

modern India through a computer screen compared to fully immersive VR, which allows you to

literally put your feet on the street of Mumbai, to turn your head and examine shops, streets, and

stores like you were actually there. This is the true potential of VR and the classroom

implications are beyond exciting.

The Feasibility of Virtual Reality in the Classroom Environment

The feasibility of Virtual Reality in the classroom is really where issues related to this

exciting technology start to pop up. Most students are familiar with the first type of VR, the

math, typing, etc. games that school, and library computers have available. While this type of VR

is a good introduction to the technology, it doesn't approach the potential application available.

Unfortunately, the cost associated with the second type of VR tech, or immersive VR is
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incredibly prohibitive to educators and schools, especially in public schools. "One of the many

reasons why virtual reality technology was beyond the reach of schools was financial feasibility

(Andolsek, 1995; Mantovani, Gaggiolo, Castelnuova, & Riva, 2003; Riva, 2003). The cost of

both procurement and maintenance of various sophisticated devices to create an immersive

environment made mass use of this technology prohibitive." Even modest VR headset devices

that provide a believable immersion experience to user's currently costs in the hundreds of

dollars for the device alone. This also does not incorporate the system requirements that the

computers hooked up to the devices require to run the headsets. Current generation VR

technology requires a current generation GPU unit which frequently run as high as four to six

hundred dollars. You will also require increased system memory or RAM, as well as other

computer components that are often only seen in the hands of only the most enthusiastic of

computer and VR hobbyists. A conservative cost analysis puts current gen VR ready experiences

at around $1500 for an appropriate level system, not including the software(games/programs)

that you wish to have students using. Another important note is that this is only for one system,

which could only be used by one student at a time. A fully equipped VR computer lab that you

could use to work with an entire class would be beyond expensive.

Another important aspect to consider when deciding whether immersive VR is a feasible

technology currently is the physical requirements which are twofold. First, VR is not usually a

seated experience, as allowing students to move and interact with the virtual environment is part

of why immersive VR is so interesting. As such, a defined area (which differs depending on the

device in question) usually approximately 9x9 feet is required to get the most of any interactive

VR experience. Due to this, any kind of VR lab would have to be incredibly large to

accommodate any reasonable number of users simulataneously. Additionally, the actual physical
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fitness requirements associated with VR are important to consider as well. "In addition, there

were many physical and psychological discomforts that users experienced in virtual reality

environments. These included strenuous posture demands, repetitive strain injuries, headset

weight and fit, simulator sickness, disorientation, hallucination, and dissociation (Costello,

1993). Another significant concern identified in the literature was poor instructional design of the

virtual learning environments (Chen, Toh, & Ismail, 2005; Riva, 2003; Wong, Ng, & Clark,

2000). VR inherently requires movement to interact in the virtual space, and that would

automatically exclude students with certain disablities among other things.

Ultimately, until the technology is refined, and costs come down, fully immersive VR

experiences seem to be out of reach for all but the wealthiest school districts. The technology

will most likely improve in the coming future and similar to PC's which were only for the

wealthiest individuals and schools, VR will likely reach a point where they are both affordable

and practical instruments of instruction in the future.

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References

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