What is happening with virtual and augmented reality in higher education?
This week the Forum will explore that question with two authors of a new report, iLRN‘s State of XR 2021. Maya Georgieva and Emory Craig, founders and principals of Digital Bodies, are world experts in Extended Reality. They have also been brilliant and in-demand Forum guests in 2020, 2019, and 2018.
Apart from offering a virtually interactive environment, VR also offers a myriad of variations in how and to what extent an environment is explorable.
VR technology can offer a fully immersive, non-immersive, and web-based VR experience. A great example of a non-immersive VR experience is a flight simulator which allows the user to experience an alternate reality with just a joystick controller and a PC. Non-immersive technologies are commonly used in architecture, industrial designing, and archeology through 3D designs, allowing users to create a replica of the real-life environment.
State of XR & Immersive Learning 2021 Outlook Report
p. 12 about VR and AR
p. 15 about social VR platforms
p. 39 CAVE like environment for Nursing students
p. 43 The FUTURE Time Traveller is a project developed and co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme and coordinated by Bulgaria’s Business Foundation for Education in partnership with seven national organizations.
p. 46 obstacles – disabilities
p. 48 California State University Northridge, which has developed an MA in Instructional Design with a focus on XR and immersive games and simulations
AR: The cutting-edge technology slowly changing your reality
For years, augmented reality technology has been quietly integrated into our lives. Experts believe it is ready to make the jump to the mainstream, but technical and social barriers remain.
What do you think is the current status of XR experiences? Are most of them accessible?
As with all technology, XR is evolving. The current status in terms of accessibility is that more folks need to be educated about accessibility in the VR space. In general, most experiences are not accessible, yet.
My current research with VEIL (Virtual Experience Interaction Lab https://www.veilab.org/) involves examining Design Patterns in VR. My future work involves research into inclusive and accessible XR. In addition, I am working on a book that will be related to XR and spatial computing.