Embracing 3D Virtual Labs and E-learning for Distance Education
E-learning is helping education institutions around the world to beat the coronavirus lockdown and push ahead with the academic calendar. Even before the pandemic, there was already high growth adoption in education technology, with global edtech investments reaching US$18.66 billion in 2019 and the overall market for online education projected to reach $350 Billion by 2025.
Online learning can be an excellent catalyst to create a new, more effective method of educating students. Existing research suggests learning online can be more effective in a number of ways. It shows that on average, students retain 25–60% more material when learning online compared to only 8–10% in a classroom. This is mostly due to the speed in which students can learn faster online. In fact, e-learning requires 40–60% less time to learn than in a traditional classroom setting because students can learn at their own pace, going back and repeating, skipping, or accelerating through concepts as they choose.
Among the tools used in e-learning is the simulation of real labs, or virtual labs. Students are able to practice their skills in a fun and risk-free Virtual Reality (VR) learning environment. Many experiments can’t be performed in real labs due to time, complexity, difficulty or hazards. In virtual labs, these experiments are simulated.
Using the computer, students conduct, study and analyze experiments in a classroom or remotely under different conditions and variables. Virtual labs help teachers and students save time and effort because they don’t need to adhere to certain times to enter the lab, or to move from one place to another. What’s more, students can learn via trial and error as they can perform the experiment more than once.
Silversea Media is bolstering capabilities to provide a one-stop shop for teachers and students. Our offering ranges from VR that can transport students into a virtual laboratory to VR where users can create virtual artworks, which can then be transformed into real objects via 3D printing technology.
Our laboratory 3D models and animations have been designed from real life models to provide photorealistic and true-to-life laboratory experiments. We offer curriculum-based VR/3D experiment simulations of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, among others, for primary, secondary and high school students. Our virtual lab can be accessed anytime and anywhere via a web browser or have it installed on a PC/laptop. It is accessible both online and offline, regardless of the user’s physical location.
Much like it did for working from home, COVID-19 is showing us what is possible in remote education and e-learning. Learn more about our immersive education technologies here: https://silversea-media.com/vrealab/
