What are the most effective ways to use AR and VR in education?

Goes without saying. While the obvious use cases lay with more advance fields of study, the more simplistic ones may start at the very basic level. For example, primary schools can leverage AR/VR for a bunch of things like Field Trips to the Amazon OR Life under the Sea. It opens up an abundance of exposure and experience beyond just pictures & videos, an experience that's closest to real life. My kid is intrigued by learning how cars work; I have 2-options: 1. Get him to a factory 2. Take him to some workshop Both have issues with accessibility & are constrained by the same. For me, buying an Oculus/HTC Vive coupled with some great content, can very well do the trick. Mission to Mars? Why not using the same?

Using AR/VR for education is probably one of the strongest use cases I have come across. Google cardboard has already made things interesting by making VR affordable for developing nations where schools now offer advance learning even with limited resources. Whether its visiting museums in different countries, Learning science by visualizing atoms and molecules, travelling back in time to learn history, visiting factories and industries etc. The possibilities are endless. Learning can be made easier and immersive with the helps of spatial computing

When finding a strong use case for AR in Education, focus on a problem where 2D medium is not enough to explain a concept. For example, let's take chemistry, where complicated chemical structure would be much easier to explain to students by bringing it out of the 2D medium and create 3D model of the structure using AR. This would make it much easier for students to learn and retain information.

AR and VR in the education space is definitely an exciting opportunity. By incorporating new visual formats like Neural Radiance Field [NeRF], you can even rapidly convert a 2D image like a photo into a 3D scene object. This allows students and educators to translate what was traditionally a flat 2d piece of work into a more immersive and true to the experience of spatial computing. By incorporating new image formats and rendering technology, educators can increasingly positively impact the learning environment that students encounter in VR. Imagine a more realistic looking heart that medical students can diagnose together despite not being physically together as an example.

VR and AR have found many educational uses that will help students understand and retain more info with their intuitive 3D learning. Networked VR is gaining much traction, given the convenience of connecting students/teachers remotely in this post-COVID era. Hence, there is a need to understand and consider use cases from a networked VR perspective. Collaborative interaction UI tools can help do a science experiment together. This promotes social and emotional learning in kids. New and intuitive visual cues keep the relevant information about the interaction that promotes empathy, compassion, and other social-emotional learning in kids, to make learning fun.

The primary thing that matters here is "what's the learning outcome - what will the learner 'know' or 'understand' or 'have improved at' once they take the headset off?". If you can't directly answer that question then you're not ready to build the educational content yet - you have no way of measuring success (and "students say WOW" is not a valid measure on its own - unless your Learning Outcome was "make students enjoy technology" or similar, which is a very low-hanging fruit). "Learners motivation and engagement" is a waste of time in designing VR experiences - it's necessary in general teaching, but if the experience is good VR then you'll get those for free. Focus instead on the learning outcome.

Drawing on my experience as a former hardware product manager, the design principles for VR and AR in education must prioritize ergonomic design and user research. Ergonomic design ensures that headsets and controllers are comfortable for prolonged use, which is crucial in educational settings where students may be engaged in learning activities for extended periods. User research is equally important; by understanding the needs and behaviors of students and educators, we can tailor the VR and AR experiences to support different learning styles and objectives.

The design principles for AR and VR educational programming should prioritize student engagement, knowledge retention, and assessment tracking. With VR experiences extending beyond the classroom, digital coaches assist in managing teacher workload without sacrificing insights into student learning progress. The purpose of integrating VR in the classroom is to compliment human instruction and enable the practical application of skills in real-world contexts, rather than solely replacing traditional teaching methods.

I think if we teach the next generation of students how to build AR/VR solutions, they’ll create use cases we wouldn’t even think of. There’s nothing more powerful than a curious mind. Show them the capabilities of AR/VR and let’s let them teach us the use cases.

I believe a pretty concise reply from @Adam Martin above is good enough. My 2-bits on the design principles will primarily focus on Realism againstt Abstraction - the idea should be to create a balance between realistic representations & necessary abstractions in order to optimize learning outcomes. Often, a simplified or augmented version of reality can enhance comprehension. That's just like giving a relevant real life example to explain a complex issue in a real environment. The other aspect is Feedback & Assessment to ensure each is aligned with the expected outcomes & provide clear measurement of success or failure.

Existing design paradigms need to be reviewed by educators for VR and AR applications. Traditional control schemes and UX has to be re-considered when the experience is meant to be spatial and have depth. Creating opportunities earlier in the classroom for students to try headsets can also help inspire them to create their own applications and experiences.

There are multiple headset companies (not the big names) specialising in education who provide low-cost headsets (even sub-$100) making it possible to kit-out a full classroom with 1 per student. However in practice it's often more effective to have students work in small teams e.g. 2-3 people, allowing them to take on different roles and practice sharing and documenting and assessing each others' activities.

As VR gains traction in education, budget constraints and misconceptions about its role pose challenges. Perkins V funding for Career & Technical Education offers a solution by providing additional financial resources. There's a fear that virtual experiences may substitute human interaction and hands-on learning. The key lies in integrating VR to compliment traditional methods rather than supplanting them. VR may facilitate skill acquisition and muscle memory, yet mastery is demonstrated through real-world application. It's important to ensure that skills learned in virtual environments seamlessly transfer to real-life situations for effective learning assessment and validation.

It would be great to see user created VR videos of demonstrate solutions of technical problems. If this problem solving exercise is successful gamified I believe student learning would be tremendous.

New UI elements for educators must be developed to monitor the students to understand their actions and attention immersively. Distraction is very common in virtual environments. Hence, thought leaders should consider keeping the immersive sessions short enough for students to focus before getting distracted by the hardware and typical software distractions. UI should support requests for help from the educator and immersive networked interactions to help students talk to an educator to better grasp the learning.

Consider going beyond offering completed VR or AR experiences for learning. There are #XR creator tools that students can use to prototype their own content to enhance their learning and perspective on relevant topics, through experimentation.

One of the opportunities afforded by VR is also creating more educational resources around the tools and how to design for VR. 3D modelling, shaders and lighting will continue to be an important area of education as the VR industry continues to grow. Despite not being in the headset, there is a lot for developers and new students to understand around how to build, design, and code for VR and Spatial. For example, when I first started as a VR developer, learning about Foveated Rendering techniques as well as better on-screen Image Culling were both crucial for the performance targets of the game I was working on.

I would say, realistic simulations of challenging or costly real-life scenarios, such as medical procedures or historical events, and enable students to interact with complex 3D models, like human anatomy. These technologies support experiential and collaborative learning, fostering problem-solving and social interaction. Additionally, AR and VR can create personalized, self-paced learning experiences. Current applications range from surgical training and art education in VR to science and engineering lessons using AR. Virtual field trips and language learning simulations also enrich education.