Educational virtual reality applications

While learning, students experience difficulties with learning due to their complexities, there is a need to understand abstract thought and principles. A lot of academic centres all over the world have begun to incorporate new technologies based on resources that help to fulfil the demands of the varied study community. In recent years, VR has changed from the view of entertainment to professional purposes. In the teaching process, it plays a huge role, offering an engaging and informative way to acquire knowledge (Gutmann et al, 2014). The below is a summary of the main patterns, prospects and issues associated with VR in education.

The word education usually implies a different method of facilitating teaching, learning or moral behaviours. The key purpose of education is to ensure students are well prepared for employment, challenges, and citizenship, teaching them knowledge and skills considered appropriate in society (Gutmann et al, 2014). The role of the instructor is to develop the potentials, competencies, and abilities of learners on the educational pathway (Dewey, 2007).

Classes are typically separated into two sections: practical and theoretical such as labs, exercises, or internships. The theoretical courses mainly involve transferring expertise in the form of lectures within a wide community and can include symposiums. In recent times, the demands of the job market and students have prompted improvements to the school system (Barnett, 992). Centred on the words of Confucius, who said, "Tell me and I forget, show me and I may remember, let me take part and understand," which gave the part of practical more priority.

Many students have trouble grasping concepts, particularly science classes, due to their technical complexities, the demand for abstract reasoning, coupled with the fact that certain topics are not exactly physical (Yager, 2000). Fundamental defects discourage further progress and the discovery of more complex issues. Practical exercises, mostly focused on advanced testing experiments, should be undertaken under close supervision; thus, students cannot configure equipment in the laboratory on their own, undergo emergency scenarios or the consequences of faulty configuration which can lead to the destruction of the equipment. In comparison, there is no chance to train and catch up beyond the laboratory timetable. At present, the alternatives are new technology like online courses (Richardson et al., 2003), mixed learning (Singh, 2003), various platforms that computer-based and many others, which enable students to replay the same subject many times and learn from mistakes. Numerous examples of application and hardware that have been active in instructional systems suggest that the ed-tech sector can enhance learning experiences for a large number of students (Collins

et al., 2018). So many educational centers in the world are beginning to implement powerful digital technology resources to help them fulfil the demands of a broad student population.

Digital educational resources are replacing traditional books (especially from free educational resources) (Collins et al., 2018). Tablets, eBooks or mobile phones with specialized software have replaced traditional school notes (Ally et al., 2009). Distance and tailored learning are used to customize schooling to the intellectual abilities, deficiencies, interests and expectations of each student (Kaye, 2018).

VR is a valuable technology that helps and promote the teaching process and learning. Many reviews and polls indicate that students can quite recall what they saw in VR and believed that virtual reality was a more memorable experience than laboratory-centred presentations (Cochrane, 2016). At the end of the day, the laboratory-centred approach resulted in shortcomings in the basic skills and studying of learners, which can contribute adversely which leads to adaption problems that occur in prospective workplaces. A ground-breaking VR-based learning and teaching approach is proposed to solve the problems. Access to the appropriate services coupled with additional costs is one of the key obstacles in delivering a consistent learning experience. In their day-to-day work, teachers also face a lack of access to new technology present in the market, expensive instruments are utilized in robots, mechanical components, medical supplies, chemical reagents, etc. Thus, a replica in 3D models with similar physical attributes converted to VR technology can be used primarily in emerging nations and communities around the globe. The virtual environment helps educators to carry out tasks that are impossible to carry out in normal laboratory environments (Petkovska et al., 2018.).

Types of Virtual Educational Environments

For educational purposes, interactive platforms typically replicate a classroom or a laboratory.

However, they also offer a secure place to simulate scenarios that may be too risky or complicated to execute in the physical world (Christou, 2010).

Figure 7. Various forms of VR used for educational purposes. Left: VR environment on the stereoscopic display using common mouse/keyboard (Alfalah et al., 2019), Experience room used to display tsunami (Meiliang et al., 2012), a primary school science instructor who gives students the experience of Egypt virtually with a Google App called Expeditions (Meiliang et al., 2012).

The first type of VR system is used specifically to show cutting-edge knowledge in a specific scientific field, which allows students to develop theoretical expertise., e.g., terminology, events, data, laws, or scientific theories. As a result of this, it typically needs an environment with minimal immersion, such as monitor-based or wall-based projection through unique HMD or goggles with a basic input system such as a keyboard, mouse, joystick or remote (Alfalah et al., 2019). These simulations usually consist of 3D visualization, preparation in dangerous conditions, as well as flight and space travel (Meyer, 2016).

The second category of virtual reality platform is also used in learning and practising practical skills based on previously learned expertise. Such situations are split into the presentation of information which is theoretical. Subsequently, this section would be imitated by the participant in the manner of a practical job. This application usually involves a deeper immersive feeling and power. Specific external detectors such as MYO Gesture Control Armband or kinetic, dedicated suits or sensor gloves may be needed to fix this problem (Pilatásig et al., 2018).

The last category of VR platform is meant to teach you how to use collected knowledge while dealing with issues. If this occurs, students will be put in a virtual environment to deal with challenging tasks after learning theoretical skills. These activities may be a matter of formulating, evaluating and synthesizing new phenomena, drawing up a plan and determining the situation based on clear parameters. In medical sciences and engineering, this form of scenario is usually applied and often involves advanced and high-precision education programs assisted by specialized haptic devices. By training with 3D models constructed based on authentic devices, students can familiarize themselves with the architecture, concepts, physical phenomena occurring as well as knowledge of emergencies (Petkovska et al., 2018).

Figure 8. shows examples of different level of immersion in VR-based education. From left: immersive device focused on wearable equipment to offer learning on the job (Caporusso et al., 2018). Tilt Brush as a tool for VR education (Lei et al., 2018). A platform for Augmented Reality Cycling (Kim et al., 2018). Haptic input system used by Simodont to teach dental procedures (Wang et al., 2016).

With the exception of the taxonomy mentioned above, VR instruction can be distinguished on the basis of their autonomy, which can be applied by students independently. It includes the participation of an instructor with several people, final users (student/teachers) and their intent to learn or exercise. (Schwienhorst, 1998).

Educational VR Applications

As shown by this survey (Wang et al., 2016), a range of implementation fields, such as engineering, health-related, scientific and multi-purpose instructional resources, were especially prevalent.

Engineering Education

VR systems are commonly used as a simulation model for training in engineering. VR's popularity in this field can be attributed to its appeal to engineering students in the preparation for the problems of industry scenarios and enabling them to make early decisions cost-effectively. (Gandhi et al., 2018). It enables engineers to have a deeper view of the specification and guides to make improvements faster where appropriate. Besides, it reduces the expense and time aspect that plagues many industrial design processes (Gandhi et al., 2018). Figure 11 shows some of these implementations.

Figure 9. Real engineering laboratories and their representation in the virtual reality form. From left: control block (Valdez et al., 2015), robotic CRS arm (Kamińska et al., 2010), robotic shoe sole glueing cell and a pick-up industrial robot (Put et al., 2018).

Numerous advanced technology implementations will be briefly mentioned. Figure 9 displays snapshots of chosen simulated worlds for engineering education. For example, civil engineering educational training was targeted at (Dinis et al., 2017). The goal of the project was to encourage, involve and enable young students to execute or plan topics that are often limited by their current understanding. The main objective of the project was to clarify the position of civil engineering and its importance in society to k-12 students. In the process of their research (Dinis et al., 2017), the authors set up a virtual reality Creative environment to launch pre-university students to civil engineering through some kind of VR game. The research findings demonstrate that virtual reality is a big advantage in Civil Engineering Education because it enables learners with little or no experience to communicate properly with the system. A VR application was submitted by developers of (Valdez et al., 2015) to encourage electrical engineering education. online labs that could be accessed by students remotely through VR was built through. These initiatives have required students to use virtual instruments and virtual breadboards to do basic electronic research in this field. The created application included functional 3D model versions of all the devices as well as the necessary electronic systems needed for the research. In combination with other study materials, immersive worlds like this can also be used, allowing students to study and take part in their home or work. It also mitigates instructor fears about cost, time and risk of unknown new techniques. (Sampio et al., 2005) was solely based on designing 3D models which could be interacted with easily by students of civil engineering and provide them with a deeper structural understanding. These models consisted of walls, roofs, including all structural

components and a bridge. Interaction with these models made it possible to monitor the construction process and to provide valuable information on each element.

Medical Education

A field of great potential is Medical VR, as verified by numerous health experts and actual medical practitioners (Riva et al., 2003). It aides’ doctors, students and nurses develop the quality of their medical skills through realistic experiences that offer an incentive to learn by hands-on exercises. Although the domain is brand new, strong examples of VR implementation have already had a positive effect on medical training. The most notable VR medical education technologies are briefly listed in this section. Figure 12 displays the snapshots of selected VR conditions.

Figure 10. Snapshots of virtual reality technologies for medical education: a VR cardiovascular anatomy system (Alfalah et al., 2019), Dental crown education (Wang et al., 2016), Cardiovascular Anatomy designer and Life Support Training VR (Radia et al., 2018).

According to Alfalah et al. (2019), the paper presented a VR device that provides a real-time 3D representation of the architecture of the heart in an immersive context. The program enables complex interactions, such as dissembled model, and free manipulation to show real anatomical relationships of various areas of the heart. Several colour shades of the flesh were used to provide a convincing picture of the various model configuration. In addition, the location of the heart is fixed to the proper anatomical orientation.

The application aim is to better explain the complexity of the nature of the heart. It also attempts to explain the anatomical connections of the various sections. The main objective of the proposal by (Seo et al., 2011) is the promotion of canine anatomical education learning, It helps

learners to communicate with either group of bones or individual bones, classify them, and construct a realistic animal skeleton in 3D space (Seo et al., 2011).

General Education

According to Oyelere et al. (2020) analysis showed that since 2012, the number of papers or literature on evolving VR systems has risen, this shows the popularity of VR in education is increasing. VR can act as a cheaper, simple, user-friendly tool and asset (Mathur, 2015). There are several fun projects in the classroom that can be used, Google Expeditions is a perfect example, which helps the instructor to take the whole class on a simulated journey (Mathur, 2015). A recreation of an immersive tour of the natural world with 360-degree footage taken from various locations is done by the application, for example underwater coral reefs discovery in the Louver Museum in Paris or South Pacific using Google Street View technology (Blyth, 2018). VENVI (Virtual Environment Interactions) (Parmar et al., 2016) is a platform for visual programming that involves dancing, logic and embodiment movement. This device was developed for girls in high schools to improve the appliance of STEM areas. VENVI was introduced as a summer camp experience for middle school children and the immersive first-person interaction. The participants in the program (54 girls between 11 and 14 years of age) used programming concepts and computer science for programming avatar dance moves. The participants had the opportunity to attend with the virtual character they programmed with the help of Oculus Rift HMD. Getting a choreographed production view first-hand, improve and correct mistakes.

Figure 11. Screen captures of virtual reality applications in general education: Top:

Thrihnukar's virtual experience with HTC Vive (Zhao et al., 2017). Bottom-left VENVI's participant with its custom character (Parmar et al., 2016), right-Colosseum virtual reality Trip by the use of Google Expeditions (Blyth, 2018).