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Unit 1:Lesson 1.2: Why should we care about XR in education?

From KNILT

Now that we know a little bit about XR, the big question is: why should educators like you, and administrators, care about XR in teaching!

What are your own feelings about the usefulness (or not) of XR technology in your teaching? Do you have an open mind towards experimenting with it?

Some reasons to consider XR in teaching

Clear empirical evidence that XR leads to better learning

Active learner engagement and situated or contextual learning in which the learner has the agency and means to both control their learning environment, lead to deeper and longer lasting learning than passive observation. XR enhances the learning experiences by providing more realistic presentation of the learning materials, interaction with simulated environments that mirror the real world, visualization of complex spatial relationships and abstract concepts, and even the ability to experience phenomena that are not possible in the real world (Wu et al, 2013).

There is clear empirical evidence that intelligent use of XR leads to more effective learning than traditional methods ( Pomerantz, 2018, 2020).

Studies show that using VR for teaching skills and competencies has resulted in substantial gains in student learning (Makowski et al. 2017). In the aviation industry, VR-based simulation had led to a nearly 50% lower human error-related airline crashes since the 1970s (Levin, 2019)

Medical students demonstrate significantly higher knowledge gain when using an immersive environment rather than screen-based learning. In surgical training where it has been shown to decrease injury, increase speed of operations and improve overall outcomes. (Bric et al, 2016).

Examples of successful implementation of XR tech in education abound; while there are challenges, XR technology has proven that it presents opportunities for learning that are superior, sustainable and effective.

The Learner Base is Primed for Learning with XR!

  1. The XR market was valued at USD 25. 84 billion in 2020 (Global newswire, 2022) and is expected to grow at 58% CAGR to reach USD 397. 81 billion by 2026. The consumer is increasingly looking for richer and more immersive and realistic digital content and experiences. Sensing this need – and indeed fueling it- the major tech providers such as Microsoft, Google, Qualcomm, Facebook, Apple continue to invest heavily in developing solutions using XR.
  2. XR technology is big in the gaming industry. This new generation of gamers is playing with gaming tech that presents highly immersive, first-person perspective experiences powered by XR. This new crop of college students is ready to embrace these technologies in learning just as they do in real life. Increasingly, we are getting used to touching things or pointing our camera at "things" and expecting to learn, see, hear and connect more.
  3. Industries such as real estate, tourism, hospitality, construction are already using XR technologies to provide more authentic experiences for their customers. The US Government is promoting use of XR technology in training and preparedness programs. Medical professionals, astronauts, pilots, language learners, and more and more companies are using AR and VR based training to train their workforce, not just for high-risk activities but also for technical skills, interpersonal skills, communication, etc. Educators in K-12 are taking to XR applications to enhance the learning experience of students and bridge the distance and resource gap for their students. So, both children and adult learners are getting exposed to some form of XR learning.

Technology and expertise are growing, and access is getting cheaper

  1. Headset hardware for VR, such as Oculus and HTC, are increasingly more accessible and affordable.
  2. As XR generated data increases, reliable and significant cloud services are here to store apps, data, and memory in virtual servers and stream them on-demand. With the rapid increase in cloud technologies, vendors and users can expect to work with XR data in uninterrupted cycles.
  3. Mobile devices are ubiquitous, access to data is relatively cheap and specialized XR equipment is becoming more affordable.
  4. Many of the AR apps are free to try and come at a low subscription cost, with almost no ongoing cost of maintenance, infrastructure needs or wear and tear.

IN SUMMARY: The experience boundaries between real and digital worlds will continue to get blurry. The learners and educators of today and tomorrow are exposed to these technologies in many facets of their lives from an early age through games and other apps and will increasingly look for similar experiences in learning. Their learning and adoption curve for these technologies will be rapid.

It wouldn’t be a reach to say that Extended Reality is the future of learning! Teaching and learning without some immersive technology might feel a bit like listening to the radio for entertainment. While there are challenges, as we will see in the next few pages, we can expect that XR based experiences will be mainstream for the American learner in the very near future, and for the rest of the world not too far in the future!

Despite this rapidly growing trend in the industry, the adoption of XR in higher education has been very slow and limited to medical training and such. Higher ed educators must wake up to XR technologies and begin to incorporate it in their teaching, or else, in a few short years the college classroom might feel like it belongs in the dinosaur age.

Test your Understanding

QUIZ 1 ( 10 points): Fundamentals of XR

What are your concerns about using XR in your teaching? Is it the relevance to your discipline, cost, time, learning curve, student interest, inertia with new technology, or something else? Write your thoughts in this Jamboard site.

Read comments from others and respond.

NEXT: Move to Unit 2: All About Augmented Reality

References and Resources

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/6/exploring-the-future-of-extended-reality-in-higher-education

Bric JD, Lumbard DC, Frelich MJ, et al. Current state of virtual reality simulation in robotic surgery training: a review. Surg Endosc 2016;30:2169

Fan, M., Antle, A. N., & Warren, J. L. (2020). Augmented reality for early language learning: A systematic review of augmented reality application design, instructional strategies, and evaluation outcomes. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 58(6), 1059–1100.1321–1329.

Hsin-Kai Wu, Silvia Wen-Yu Lee, Hsin-Yi Chang, Jyh-Chong Liang, Current status, opportunities and challenges of augmented reality in education, Computers & Education, Volume 62, 2013, Pages 41-49,

Jeffrey Pomerantz, Learning in Three Dimensions: Report on the EDUCAUSE/HP Campus of the Future Project, research report (Louisville, CO: ECAR, August 2018); Jeffrey Pomerantz, XR for Teaching and Learning: Year 2 of the EDUCAUSE/HP Campus of the Future Project, research report (Louisville, CO: ECAR, October 2019); and Jeffrey Pomerantz, Extending XR across Campus: Year 2 of the EDUCAUSE/HP Campus of the Future Project, research report (Louisville, CO: ECAR, March 2020).

Levin A. Fewer crashes caused by pilots. USA Today 2004. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-03-01-crash_x.htm [Accessed 12 April 2019].

Makowski D, Sperduti M, Nicolas S, Piolino P. ‘Being there’ and remembering it: Presence improves memory encoding. Conscious Cogn 2017;53:194–202.

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