The State of
(Virtual) Reality
in College
Immersive technologies - VR, AR and industry-grade tools - empower students to learn by doing.
While large universities are increasingly using augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and industry-grade tools and production processes to immerse students in new experiences for learning, research and career readiness, Campus Technology set out to understand where 2-year colleges and vocational programs are in their adoption of these new forms of technology. Although these smaller institutions are lagging in adoption, nearly half are already running pilots or in the planning phase.
HOW DEEPLY COLLEGES ARE IMMERSED
While 2-year colleges are half as likely to implement immersive technologies than larger schools, they're more likely to be running pilots. Still, over a third of 2-year institutions have no plans to use immersive tech at all.
When 2-year colleges do use digital reality, it's most likely to be AR over VR (41% vs. 21%). However, among 2-year colleges that are in the planning process, VR tops AR (40% vs. 24%).
Most Popular Disciplines for Immersive Learning
(referenced by at least 25% of respondents)Institutions
Institutions
BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES
Institutions identify numerous benefits of VR, AR and industry-grade tools:2-year colleges report that immersive learning...
4-year colleges report that immersive learning...
Colleges also face challenges:
2/3 cite:
lack of funding
1/3 cite:
lack of faculty training
lack of faculty interest
IMMERSIVE LEARNING ESSENTIALS
AR and VR headsets are coming down in price, losing their wire tethers and gaining kudos for more responsive user experiences.Top 5 Headsets for AR and VR:
Access to AR/VR curriculum poses a barrier to colleges...
0%
have it
0%
do not
... but new AR and VR experiences for education are being introduced every week - and much of it is free!
Sources for Curriculum
0% Developed by college
0% Developed from various sources online
0% Produced as open education resources
0% Produced by traditional publisher
Oftentimes, immersive learning experiences require dedicated space.
Here's what's in the college floor plan...
| Have 52% |
Plan 36% |
Collaborative spaces | Have 71% |
Plan 16% |
| 45% | 30% | Makerspace | 35% | 28% |
| 36% | 33% | Active learning classroom | 62% | 25% |
| 18% | 24% | Innovation zone | 30% | 30% |
| 3% | 33% | Visualization lab | 34% | 28% |
| 18% | 12% | Incubation lab | 23% | 28% |
| 0% | 6% | Cave automatic virtual environment (CAVE) | 14% | 16% |
Who uses these spaces on college campus?
College students & faculty
K-12 students and educators Community members
Industry
Public agencies
Nonprofits
WHERE AR AND VR GOES NEXT
10 ideas suggested by our IT and education professionals if budget, resources and support were no object:
- Build a library of digital archeological artifacts
- Develop scenarios for law enforcement, fire science and security
- Add to dorm rooms for virtual study room opportunities
- Enhance learning opportunities for human body explorations in the allied health programs
- Immerse students in business environments
- Use in training petroleum technology program students
- Add a proof-of-concept VR makerspace for industry partners
- Offer virtual campus visits for prospective students and families
- Take students on virtual field trips
- Enable medical students to perform virtual surgical procedures
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT:
http://DellEMC.com/HiED
Notes: Findings are based on a Campus Technology online survey open for invitation-only response in summer 2018. After filtering for appropriateness of affiliation, job roles and completeness of answers, survey results represent 200 respondents. Roles included: faculty (32%), IT leadership and staff (26%), instructional design leadership and staff (23%), other institutional leadership (9%), library leadership and staff (6%) and other (4%). Affiliations included: four-year institutions (71%), two-year institutions (25%) and vocational and other institutions (5%). Responses may not total 100% due to rounding.