Immersive Education

According to PwC (2019), Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) could add £62.5bn to the UK economy, a 2.4 per cent boost to GDP, by 2030. It is also suggested that VR and AR will also have a significant impact on the UK workplace with 1.19 per cent of jobs or 400,663 people utilising the technologies by 2030.

Augmented reality (AR) layers digital information onto the real world in real time through the use of a camera-equipped device to augment or enhance reality. It is now applied across industry from interactive museum displays to use by the military and in Medicine (advance-he.ac.uk). Augmented reality provides an opportunity for teachers to overlay abstract concepts onto the real world.

This learning community aims to facilitate exchange, critical reflection, scholarship and pedagogic research in immersive reality (virtual/augmented reality and 360° video) in Teaching and learning.  The community seeks to develop a range of partnerships with various types of participants including staff, students, employers and AR/VR providers.

Although there are many case studies of the use of AR in learning and teaching, it is only slowly becoming embedded into the curriculum. Therefore, the community invites members and participants to submit “Case Studies” outlining the way their institution has embedded immersive education into the curriculum, the technology used and its limitations, what works (context, audience, student participation i.e. co-creators, student feedback and impact on KPIs), and the pedagogical underpinning.

To find out more, please get in touch with Wilfrid Flanda at W.Flanda@westminster.ac.uk.