Virtual reality lesson plans

What is Virtual Reality (VR) Technology?

VR Technology is the latest technology that gives the user an experience of a virtual world by simulation. Allowing a stereoscopic view and through interactions, it makes you feel as same as in the real world. Just imagine what it would be an amazing experience, if you are to feel a landscape generated by VR, not only by 3D images but with murmuring sounds and sweet smells of the scenery. Isn’t it sounds fantastic and peculiar?? That’s virtual reality. Out of the range of applications of VR technology, How can you use this for education? That’s what we are going to discuss in this chapter ” Virtual Reality lesson plans [1][2].

Why VR in the classroom?

With the exceptionality of VR, you are no longer only readers or spectators. But fortunately, you are immersing participants in the learning incident. How marvelous it would be if you could explore reality by being a partner of it feeling the nature of science in it? Let’s see how to start [3].

Getting started with Virtual reality lesson plans

You may have to ensure following technological requirements in basic.

• Mobile devices  – To power up your VR teaching.
• Network – VR lesson guides can either be downloaded or streamed on your own. Downloading is more effective due to no encounter of technical issues as in streaming.
• Headphones – Provides you with a more immersive experience rather than in the situation with speakers, where frequent disturbances are arising due to surrounding noises.
• Headset and compatible specs – Choose your headset tallying with the mobile device you are using to get the maximum out of it. Be informed how to pair your headset accurately with the specs. You can also get the experience of 360 videos without a headset; however, it is not as the immersive feeling when you are with a headset. There are powerful headsets that no connection is needed to a mobile device and with two wireless controllers and an external camera. These are pretty enough to make you feel comfortable and no longer intrusive (Ex – Oculus Quest) [4].

Before beginning, you can get an idea about the experience on YouTube and several online platforms and apps providing you with VR classroom guides and 360 videos [5].

It is important that you should Prioritize the safety of the students due to the novelty and the use of technology as you never had been.

How to ensure safety?

• Ensure whether all your students are sitting.
• As this is an immersive experience, fostering the participants in virtuality with intense emotions, empathy, memories, etc. thus creating an overwhelming condition, ask such students to STOP the participation.
• Ensure that all your students are not waving their hands and legs in a manner to cause potential accidents.
• Ask your students to take off the headsets if they are feeling dizzy or head aching.

At next, let’s see how to make your VR class more strategic, safe, and effective [3].

Learning strategies using VR

• Roles and goals – Give your students goal/s to achieve at the end of the experience. After participoating to the VR lesson ,you can ask your students to play roles on the experience they got on behalf of focused objectives
• Partnership – On the occasions of a limited number of devices, you can group or pair the students to ensure equal distribution
• Exploration – You can ask the students to participate in the VR experience twice, once to achieve the specific lesson objective. Then in the other turn to explore the virtual world following their curiosities and to come up with new things.
• Journaling – Students should record the observations; synthesize and reflect on the heft they experienced. You can assign topics such as “If I were there” and “The Wonder I felt” etc.

Example- Virtual reality lesson plans

Let’s see into a few super examples where VR technology can be used for teaching and self-learning [6].

• STEM teaching – Have you ever experienced a dissection of a frog just to explore the inner organs and functioning in your childhood? Isn’t it implying a pretty disgust even upon reading the sentence?  However, thanks to VR, now you can dissect a frog virtually using the VR app “Froggipedia”. Additionally, if you want to learn the marvels of the human body keep us alive, now you can immerse in the inner reality of the human body whatever it is in blood streaming, heart lub-dub, immunity fighting against viruses and so many.
• Humanitarian disciplines – Nearly 60 million in the present world are homeless due to war and persecution. Out of them, about 50% are children. By virtual, you can be among them and feel the hard times due to such discrepancies.
• Language learning – Thanks to VR, now you can experience the real setting of the nation virtually in which you are going to learn your dream language. It is somewhat exceptional than the theoretical learning of a language.
• Presentation skills – You no longer need to stand in front of a mirror and practice your research or seminar presentation. Thanks to VR, now you can access a virtual audience with supportive gestures and eye contact to improve your presentation skills.

Pros and cons of Virtual reality lesson plans

Undoubtedly, it is a marvelous transformation in education with a lot of benefits. You may feel that you are actively interacting in the learning incident and it is no longer a work base. Provides you an outstanding opportunity for the expedition of the real world which you couldn’t achieve in a traditional classroom,

• Heighten the creativity
• Concentration
• And contribution of the studentsproviding a high-quality learning experience.

The most important is the elimination of the language barriers for learning. However, virtual reality lesson plans reduce the mutual interactions, generate more expenses, lack flexibility, may heighten the addiction to virtuality and you may find it hard if technical issues are persisting [7].

References

[1]

[2]