Top Ways AR & VR Development Contribute to the Education Sector

In the 21st century, digitalization has spread like wildfire and reached every nook and cranny of this world. Some technological inventions of the decade have transformed the world around us, made our lives more convenient and luxurious, and tasks easier to perform. 

Amongst such technological inventions are Augmented reality, aka AR, and Virtual Reality, aka VR. These two technologies, often mentioned as a pair, are two distinct technologies with considerable market sizes.

AR & VR have individually as well as together transformed many industries and allied sectors, be it healthcare, manufacturing, tourism, or entertainment. In this post, we will talk about AR & VR in the Educational sector. Top AR & VR development companies are betting big on the education sector.

We will discuss some key revolutionary benefits that AR & VR combo can provide to the education sector that could improve the learning and teaching experience. We will also go through some of the standard use cases and implementation of AR & VR in education. So, let's move forward and discuss AR & VR in education by starting with an overview of AR & VR. 

A Brief Overview of AR

Augmented reality, aka AR, is one of the most promising technologies of this decade. Based on reports, the augmented reality market size is bound to reach USD 56.3 billion by the end of 2023; meanwhile anticipated to reach $1,188.98 billion by 2032 with a CAGR of 40.34% in the period 2023-2032.

The reason behind this humongous growth projection is the increasing adoption of AI technology and continuous innovation in the field. 

For beginners, AR is a technology that puts virtual computer-generated information into a real-world scenario or environment. AR technology can be accessed by any means, be it smartphone software, tablets, etc., or AR glasses.

Augmented reality is becoming extremely popular in the gaming and fashion industry. Pokemon GO, NBA All-World, and Jurassic World Alive are some of the top AR games players worldwide love. Some of the leading fashion giants, such as Burberry, Fendi, and H&M, have invested in AR-powered platforms to enhance the shopping experience of their online shoppers.

Let's move forward and get an overview of virtual reality.

Suggested Reading: How Augmented Reality Has Transformed Major Industries?

A Brief Overview of VR

Virtual reality is another promising technology that takes the AR technology concept two steps ahead. AR puts virtual information on real-world surroundings; in contrast, VR technology creates a new virtual world. Virtual reality provides an immersive experience to the users, thus making them feel that they are inside a whole new world. 

The vast virtual reality market is anticipated to reach 15.81 billion USD by the end of 2023 and is expected to jump to 28.84 billion USD by 2026. Similar to Augmented reality, virtual reality is prevalent in Fashion, Education, Travel, tourism, healthcare, manufacturing, and many other industries.

With the increase in popularity of the AR & VR market, the hardware market size for supporting the AR & VR software is rising too. It is anticipated that after positive growth between 2023 to 2027, the AR & VR hardware market will reach 15.09 billion USD by the end of 2027.

AR & VR in the Education Sector

In the above sections, we learned how AR & VR are two distinct technologies that have contributed to the world's metamorphosis in their unique ways. Now let's discuss how both of them together are transforming the education sector and learning and teaching experience.

#1 Interactive Learning 

AR & VR can help educational institutions design courses that are easier to understand and enjoyable, thus making the learning experience more memorable. 

The best way students can learn and remember what they are learning is by interacting with the teacher, asking doubts, and all such things that demonstrate active participation. AR & VR together help educational institutions create interactive academic learning material or, say, content. 

#2 Easy to Explain Difficult Concepts

The saying, "Actions speak louder than words," holds in almost every situation. It fits when we say that one can learn a concept better when one sees it in action rather than only theoretical knowledge. Just think of a scenario where a child could learn about Newton's Law of Gravitation by experiencing firsthand the situation when an apple fell on Newton's head. 

Won't it be fun and memorable? 

AR & VR can help teachers create the situation and let students experience virtual world scenarios, thus understanding and remembering the concept for a lifetime.

#3 Immersive Learning

AR & VR help create an immersive world where teachers can easily explain complex concepts by providing practical solutions through visual representations to the students. Immersive learning allows teachers to teach students without them getting distracted and fully focused. 

Immersive learning brings the students into an immersive environment where they can see things happening in the virtual world. They can feel and experience the things happening in the virtual world, thus engaging their entire focus on learning and thereby improving their presence of mind and ability to learn.

#4 Learning More Fun

You might have noticed during years of schooling that we used to like video learning materials more than compared to what the teacher teaches through books and whiteboards. Similarly, today adding more to video learning materials, AR & VR development software allows teachers to bring students to a virtual world where they can learn by watching things by getting a 360-degree experience of everything happening around them in the virtual world.

Hence this type of learning experience brought about by AR & VR development for the education sector can make learning more fun and enjoyable for students and improve the teaching experience and effectiveness. 

#5 Better Knowledge Retention

You must have experienced when learning something through illustration or video tutorials; you tend to understand it better and remember the concept for longer. On the same philosophy, AR & VR development for education focuses on boosting knowledge retention amongst learners to the next level. 

The two technologies help create an environment that provides illustrations and video examples and creates a whole new world that gives immersive learning experiences to the learners. Here they not only watch but also feel and experience the things in the virtual world up close; they can stand and see the processes happening in the virtual world. They get a real-time view of processes occurring in the virtual world, unlike 2D learning through video tutorials. 

#6 Better Scores

It has been seen that AR & VR development for educational purposes can prove to be very beneficial for students by improving their scores significantly and reducing the learning time. One of Microsoft’s most promising AR & VR powered solutions, Hololens has found its profound role in improving the education sector to a huge extent.

In Case Western Reserve University, a Hololens lab was set up, and it was seen that students could score 50% better on their retention tests and required up to 40% less class time when monitored over a longer term. 

Suggested Reading: 10 Must-Have Features of an Education Mobile Application

Top Use Cases of AR & VR in the Education Sector

Summing Up

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are two of the most trending technologies of the 21st century, with a humongous market size. These two technologies have transformed numerous industries and are anticipated to do wonders as innovation in the field thrives.

In this post, we discussed AR & VR in education and how it has transformed the education sector and made learning more fun and interactive. We learned some key ways AR & VR development for the education sector is helping students perform better by improving their knowledge retention capabilities and understanding of concepts. 

We also discussed various use cases of augmented and virtual reality in education. AR & VR in education is truly a transformative step towards revolutionizing how we used to learn and educate ourselves and the functioning of various educational institutions for the better.