Using Virtual Reality to Learn

It may sound far fetched but it is already happening in a whole range of industries from dentistry to psychology. In fact virtual reality already affords researchers with mass samples in behavioral sciences and other human studies, general sciences and business.

None of this is as new as you may think. In April 1999, Numedeon Incorporated launched Whyville; a virtual world designed to engage students in educational activities. Their user base has grown to an audience of over 3 million online learners. The success of Whyville has encouraged educational institutions to examine the future of virtual reality in education. It may be said that if the traditional education providers are to continue being the primary education resource they will have to consider their presence within virtual reality in any future planning. Amongst traditional providers the most common virtual offering for students are platforms to extend the classroom curriculum.

Virtual Psychology

One interesting consideration in the psychology field of online research is the dissimilarity of virtual alter egos to real life selves. There is some evidence that although online identities are similar to real life identities in many ways, in others, we significantly change who we are when we go online. There is evidence that psychologically virtual worlds can help patients become more familiar and comfortable with actions they are reluctant to undertake in real life.  Personality disorders like panic and agoraphobia have been studied in virtual worlds with interesting results. So is the future of science virtual?

Virtual Dentistry

In another branch of science, a dentistry related study result suggests that students who train in dentistry with a virtual reality simulator between six and ten hours per academic year improved significantly more than other students in a control group did. The results were taken from performance at the beginning of an exam year and then again at the end of the exam year. The results were promising for proponents of using virtual reality simulators to teach the sciences. 

Virtual Medicine

Another study involving the use of virtual study in medicine indicates that it is possible to successfully conduct a PBL tutorial with medical students from two institutions with the integration virtual reality and distributed distance interaction. In this study the use of virtual reality learning did not hinder learning dynamics when compared with traditional classroom tutorials. The conclusion of this study was that modalities applied, where students and tutors were from different institutions and separate locations, could be used to support interactive experiential learning in a distributed network or on site.

The Future of Virtual Learning

Other ideas for virtual learning practice in the real world might involve engaging with cultural differences in a business setting and learning the protocols, facial expressions and other body language appropriate in a foreign country. Similarly virtual practice may prepare students for a near future when long distance meetings are conducted in virtual boardrooms rather than in person.  It is even possible that one day virtual economies will merge with real life economies to the extent that virtual economy could be treated like that of another nation. It is a fact that some real world producers, like Apple, are already opening stores in virtual reality worlds.

Language study was one of the first of the educational branches to take up online learning and then virtual learning. Nearly every language on earth is being offered in some virtual capacity for those who want a virtual immersion experience in a foreign tongue. No doubt that virtual learning option will continue to expand and grow.

It is interesting to ponder in closing, what virtual learning through avatars might bring to those students who have traditionally been most disadvantaged in the classroom environment; the tactile learner?