4 Educational Use
4.1 General Classrom Use
VR is going to give teachers and students what previously have been unavailable. Teachers could use VR for simulations, giving the students an almost realistic setting. For example, over the past week, the students of OYM participated in a business simulation called BizCafe, where students managed a new coffee shop. Though the website made this simulation extremely detailed, it didn’t feel real. However, if we were to use VR for this simulation, we could have really immersed ourselves in a “real” coffee shop, and “seen” its daily operations. As shop owners, we could’ve “talked” to the NPC’s like employees and customers. VR would’ve added a “realistic” touch to the online simulation.
In general, students are more attracted to less conventional teaching methods. Aside from using VR in simulations, teachers should incorporate VR in regular, everyday classrooms, where they “transport” students into the subject they are studying. Students will be able to literally “touch”, “see”, and “interact” with the things they are studying. For example, medical students can use VR to operate on bodies; engineering students can use VR to build models; computer science majors can use VR to “move” code snippets around, and see the “inner mechanism” of softwares, etc. VR gives teachers the possibility to create a truly immersive and interactive studying environment, and the actual content should depend on the subject. By doing so, students could become more attentive in the classroom and recall its contents better.
As you can imagine, a virtual class environment will include more distractions than a conventional classroom. In order to only impose positive changes to the classroom, the teachers need to make sure of the following:
- Before the classes start, the teachers should set rules for classroom etiquette. The rule should include things like no smartphone usage or limited activities that are unrelated to the class material.
- The teacher should set clear expectations for the students, and openly communicate with them.
- Be explicit about when the students should be participating, versus when they are free to explore on their own.
- It is OK for students to socialize during class, but only during the time frames set by the teachers.
- Limit class time to keep students engaged with the right amount of energy. This can also avoid the possibility of burnout or other negative health implications from using VR headsets for an extended period of time.
- The professor should only use softwares that aligns with the educational goals, have been widely adopted, and backed up with extensive technical support.
- Make sure that the class material’s learning curve is not too steep for the students’ level.
- Always prioritize the students’ safety and security.
Using VR in the classrooms will revolutionize the education industry. Students will be able to get hands-on experience in the classroom, improving the lesson’s effectiveness and students’ productivity. However, the teachers need to make sure that VR does not sidetrack their students’ academic progress.
4.2 Professors’ Guidelines
Factors that affect student productivity
To design the instruction of a productive Metaverse classroom, it is important to understand the motivation factor behind productivity. The article, “Improving Education Productivity” from Herbert J. Walberg, examines the what factors influence productivity the most by using meta-analysis and control group research. The following table summarizes the nine major factors that affect educational productivity, followed by their proportional learning effects.
| Factor | Proportional Learning Influence |
|---|---|
| A. Student Aptitude | |
| Ability or preferable prior achievement as measured by the standardized tests | 0.92 |
| Development as indexed by chronological age or stage of maturation | 0.51 |
| Motivation or self-concept as indicated by personality tests or the student’s willingness to persevere intensively on learning tasks | 0.18 |
| B. Instruction | |
| Amount of time students engage in learning | 0.47 |
| Quality of the instructional experience, including method (psychological) and curricular (content) aspects | 0.18 |
| C. Psychological Environments | |
| Morale or student perception of classroom social group | 0.47 |
| Home environment or “curriculum of the home” | 0.36 |
| Peer group outside school | 0.20 |
| Minimal leisure-time mass media exposure, particularly television | 0.20 |
Based on Table 1, we can confirm that a student’s knowledge of a particular field is heavily dependent on his or her own judgment of achievement/ability. If a student has achieved good grades in finance in the past, he/she will be more motivated to learn finance in the future because of the default “I am capable/gifted in finance”. Based on this factor, we can infer that when a professor helps students to reshape their perceptions of a field from “knowledge is difficult and I don’t want to learn it” to “knowledge is not difficult and I can understand it”, it has a significant positive effect on students’ motivation to learn. The implementation of this approach requires not only efficient teaching methods but also positive psychological cues for students. To ensure the long-term motivation and productivity of students.
| Category | Average Effect |
|---|---|
| Identifying similarities and differences | 1.61 |
| Summarizing and note taking | 1.00 |
| Reinforcing effort and providing recognition | 0.80 |
| Homework and practice | 0.77 |
| Nonlinguistic representations (e.g., maps and other graphics) | 0.75 |
| Cooperative learning | 0.73 |
| Setting goals and providing feedback | 0.61 |
| Generating and testing hypotheses | 0.61 |
| Activating prior knowledge | 0.59 |
The article also assesses the impact of delivery methods by measuring the effectiveness of students’ understanding of new knowledge. Table 1 shows the impact of the nine most common delivery methods used across the United States.
Re-design the class structure
With the proportional learning influence on educational productivity, we generated seven principles to form a productive classroom. Followed by the degree ranking of influence factors on education. Those include:
Provide diagnostic test/background survey to measure student’s skill and capability for class content. Modifying the class structure and content according to the student’s background to provide suitable content for gaining higher knowledge.
Range class on grade/credit. Provide different amounts of homework and completion time based on range. For students to better understand the class concept in line with their self learning ability.
Provide hour estimation for concept understanding, assignment, and group project. To help students better understand time and effort expect from the class
Increase morale/perception of class to ensure a better learning environment. Action could include increase class interaction/group discussion/group work
Offer well-designed homework to collaborate with class lecture, to help students better understand class concept/knowledge
Prohibit possible distraction to classroom, especially electronic devices
Constantly review the quality of instructional experience. Review should be based on class feedback and overall performance of students. (quality of instructional experience should include psychological methods & curricular aspects)
4.3 Examples in Different Professions
Virtual reality in education is especially useful for learning visual and tactile subjects, rather than conceptual and abstract ones. VR excels at creating simulations that leave a long-lasting impression on the student. People are more likely to remember experiences rather than lectures from a teacher. The following are examples of possible uses in different subjects.
Criminal Justice & Business Cases
With the purpose to bring more training experience for criminal justice students to form a clear decision in various cases, VR training software offers a big screen, sound immersion, and scenario setting to help students engage in case practice. Through this training scenario, students could be required to define the mission objective, then apply language intervention/external intervention to solve the case. Currently, company X has developed a similar product which includes five major scenario settings: de-escalation, use of force, mental illness, skill drills, and low light. All the scenario settings are created based on case reports that appear in the United States in the past 5 years, to form the most realistic scenario for testing.
Similarly, business students can be put into the actual cases that they are assigned to read. They can explore a company themselves, look at the operations taking place, be in a presentation when the case exhibits are being presented to the company, and much more. There could even be interactivity between the user and an NPC, or an non-player character. Imagine being placed into a company operating during the Great Recession. The business student will probably understand a crisis, high-stakes environment and the actions to take much better after this experience. Finally, if technological advancements allow, the student can give their optimal solution to the case and see the effects of their solution on the business going forward. This gives the student the ability reflect and understand what went right and/or wrong in their decision-making
Medical Training
A VR system application can be used to imitate the practice environment of a surgeon by simulating the real cause of the patient’s illness. Another company, Y, that is developing an application for surgery simulation has included a software display with instructions for the trainer and provides credit/feedback after the training has been completed. Meanwhile, dual/multi-perspective are supported, to increase proficiency and cooperation for the surgery team in reality. Their learning mode also allows for a better understanding of the position and structure of human organs, by allowing multiple perspective interactions between trainer and 3D patient model. For example, the spine model can be removed from the patient’s back for a better observation. Repetitive practice and real time recording are also outstanding points of VR training model, providing big help with retrospect problems.
This is a video demonstrating how surgical training can be done up 5x faster using virtual reality.
Scientific Concepts
Most students love whenever it is experiment day in their physics, chemistry, or biology class; and experiments are still incorporated into classes because there are benefits to doing hands-on activities. In-class experiments can help students retain information more clearly and understand more fundamentally the concepts being taught. Experiments, however, are limited by the availability of physical resources and time teachers and professors have to set up. Using Virtual Reality to conduct experiments in the classroom allows students to have pseudo-hands-on experiences and the set up for a VR scenario can be done much more quickly and efficiently than in person.
For example, the Doppler effect explains why Formula 1 cars’ sound goes from high to low as they pass through you. This is the sound of a Formula 1 car passing by someone
As an object emitting waves, or sound waves in this example, moves relatively closer to you, the waves clump up, getting to you with more frequency. As the object passes by you and moves relatively away from you, the waves reach you with less frequency. And this video explains the Doppler effect more clearly:
Imagine if instead of watching this explanatory video, a student could put on a Virtual Reality headset and be placed on the front row of a Formula 1 event. A car approaches you from one side, emitting sound waves of the screeching, squealing and scraping of the car. As it passes by you, you hear the pitch of the sound go down. The sound waves reach you less frequently, thus lowering the pitch. This would probably be a much more memorable experience 5 years from now, than the example video provided above.
History Courses
Finally, virtual reality could make the lecture and reading based history class one of the most fun courses for students by, similar to the business case applicability, fully immersing students into events of the past. Going to class, putting on a headset, and in the blink of an eye suddenly appearing moments before Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address would be nothing short of immersive and memorable. One thing history class can teach is the facts, but one it can not truly convey to students are the feelings felt throughout some historical events. Virtually being in the middle of the crowd during the ‘I have a Dream Speech’ would probably make any student understand the sheer magnitude of importance and emotions experienced at the moment.