AR(E) HEADSETS THE FUTURE OF E-lEARNING?

Ready Player Everyone?

Anybody remember the 1992 film, The Lawnmower Man? Pierce Brosnan takes a gardener with learning difficulties, straps a virtual reality headset on him and turns him into a genius. The headset in the movie is pretty spot-on for the devices that have been kicking around for the last few years, and I’m certain that Silicon Valley tech companies have been using the film as some sort of blueprint or mission statement (hopefully minus the psychotropic drugs, lobotomies and world domination).

The idea that Virtual Reality, and its evolved form, Augmented Reality, can accelerate learning is a tantalising prospect, and on paper at least, seems to expand on many of the remote/decentralised/self-guided benefits we often tout about the current form of e-learning. But in the real world, do any of us sit in our houses and watch films on those massive, neck-straining headsets we got free with our mobile phones in 2017? Do your kids spend hours gaming on a Meta Quest, or are they just sitting on the sofa with a Playstation controller or an iPhone?

I hear you cry, “But soon, Apple, Meta and Google will launch new headsets, that are more like glasses and not at all heavy and bulky. So there.” This is true - 2024 is the year that all those companies who own our data are going to start shoving Ray-Ban-branded VR specs into (or onto) our faces. Yet haven’t consumers already had lightweight glasses that would transform how we viewed the world, in the form of 3D televisions? A handful of people bought them a decade ago, nobody used them. It’s one thing to present the world with a revolutionary technology but quite another to convince the masses to use it.

Maybe I’m wrong, maybe entertainment isn’t the way to convince people to adopt new tech, and it’s actually all about the sexy training and learning possibilities it opens up. Maybe VR was the gimmick and it’s AR that’s going to turn the tide of public opinion. So let’s take a look into the crystal lenses of the future and see what it could all mean for e-learning.

First off, a quick comparison between Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, just to make sure we’re all on the same page. While both VR and AR headsets offer immersive experiences, they differ in how they deliver them.

Virtual Reality (VR)

VR headsets create an entirely simulated environment, blocking out your physical surroundings. As much as is possible with a brick strapped to your face, you feel like you’re truly “in” the virtual world, whether it’s a fantasy gaming landscape or a training simulation.

VR creates a self-contained experience, so interactions with the physical world are restricted. You might use controllers to manipulate objects within the VR environment, but there’s little interaction with your actual surroundings.

VR has seen an okay-ish rate of adoption in gaming due to its ability to deliver an immersive experience and transport people to other worlds. However, its applications in education are still evolving.

Augmented Reality (AR)

AR overlays digital information onto your physical surroundings “augmenting” your world, rather than dropping you into a new one. You see the real world through the headset, with additional information, objects, or characters superimposed on top. AR means you get to interact with both the digital and physical worlds simultaneously. You can manipulate virtual objects within your real environment, making it ideal for activities like practising procedures or visualising complex concepts.

AR’s ability to blend the digital and physical makes it wellsuited for various educational and practical applications. It can be used for tasks like remote assistance, design visualisation, and skills training.

Save the frogs

Did you ever have to dissect a frog at school? I didn’t, but I saw it in E.T. The Extraterrestrial, so it must be a thing. Anyway, I can’t imagine either of my daughters being too thrilled about cutting up a frog and pulling out its guts (well, one of them might, she can be quite violent) - they’d probably put more effort into releasing them back into the wild like Elliott did. Augmented Reality promises to do away with all the yucky stuff, letting kids dissect virtual frogs on the desk right in front of them, fostering an interest in animal biology without anybody being sick in class. That’s a win for the future of veterinary medicine, right?

Outside of the classroom, students could don their AR Oakley’s to visit historical sites and see 3D recreations of ancient buildings come to life before their eyes. AR tech like this is already deployed in some mobile apps, allowing you to hold your phone up infront of your face and see rendered structures and characters, but think how much better it would be if you could do it hands-free. Still not convinced?

Ok, maybe we’re concentrating too much on school education. What are the applications for AR in industry? With AR, you could sit at your dining table and see other members of your team in the same space. Suddenly online meetings become more natural, as avatars with your colleagues faces move, gesture and emote like real people, rather than Zoom faces with their beach holiday photos badly cutting around them.

AR interactions process in real-time, so you could hold virtual conversations with native speakers on the other side of the world, as the software translates their language into yours.

Expanding on the frog dissection, medical professionals will be able to practice surgical procedures on virtual patients in a safe and controlled environment. Engineers and designers can test prototype designs in 3D, viewing them in the real world through their AR glasses as they collaborate with others on complex projects.

Even soft skills training can be better with AR, as people roleplay in-situ against virtual characters to develop communication, negotiation, and problem-solving skills.

As AR can bring people in different locations into a single virtual space, collaborative learning, lectures and team talks can all

Back to reality

The possibilities for AR are immense but there are still barriers to organisations adopting the technology. Even basic VR headsets cost hundreds of pounds, whilst Apple’s £3,000+ pricing for their new AR goggles will probably put them out of most SME budgets for now. Of course, this will come down when and if the technology takes off. Most people I know with a company mobile phone still only have a basic model that has been bought in bulk, so it’s hard to imagine any company dropping tens of thousands on fancy AR headsets that staff can take home to work remotely.

Content development is also a consideration; as more companies look to create bespoke training resources for their teams, are their enough e-learning development companies with the skills to create AR courses? It takes time and money to train developers to use new tech and without a proven track record of headsets setting the world on fire, will there be enough companies willing to throw resources at reskilling in order to pivot their offering?

Augmented Reality has the potential to revolutionise e-learning by making it more engaging, immersive, accessible, and personalised. But it's going to take a willingness on the part of developers, education, business and end-users to make the revolution a reality.