Rethinking Campus Boundaries: Embracing Experiential Learning with VR/AR
Paragraph 1
It is often said that campus life in university is the best phase of your life. For a number of years, students live and learn in a confined community setting designed to facilitate the pursuit of knowledge. And then, one day, they graduate and face the real world. This model of a confined campus community serves little purpose today. The world is changing so rapidly that students entering university today would struggle to make sense of the world they enter upon graduation. That is, unless the campus community is specifically designed to have a porous boundary and be tightly interwoven with the real world. This has become a compelling imperative for universities today. Engaging with the real world through porous boundaries can and must take many forms. Research collaborations and consultations with industry could help maintain the balance between pure and applied research. The faculty could be expanded to include practitioners, such as authors, statisticians, business leaders, conservationists and policymakers. Students could be encouraged to learn experientially, by attempting to identify and solve real-life problems in the world around them.
Paragraph 2
In recent years, virtual reality and augmented reality (VR/AR) has emerged as an effective enabler of experiential learning. The efficacy of VR/AR tools for learning has been scientifically established for more than a decade now. However, most prior research has taken place in experimental conditions and controlled lab settings that involve expensive VR/AR equipment and room facilities. Today, costs associated with VR/AR have dropped substantially—you could buy a cardboard VR viewer for under ?500, and view VR/AR content for free using your smartphone. Universities looking to build a porous boundary with the real world would do well to take a close look at the potential of VR/AR.
Paragraph 3
The possibilities are endless and exciting, spanning a gamut of disciplines and learner types. In biology, for example, the rote memorization of the names and characteristics of species and genera continues to intimidate the brightest of students. On the other hand, imagine taking a walk through the dense Amazon jungle. You look around, taking in the infinite diversity of plant and animal life around you. You listen to the sounds of the forest. You turn to pay attention to the flitting movement you sense with your peripheral vision, and observe a dazzling blue butterfly. Now, you pause, and click on it. You see that it is the Morpho rhetenor, and learn about how the structural arrangement of the scales covering its wings causes its iridescence.
Paragraph 4
Or perhaps you’re a maths student trying to break away from Euclidean planes. But hyperbolic planes are hard to comprehend. How could it be that you take four left turns but not end up at the same spot where you started? If you tried this with a VR headset that puts you inside a hyperbolic space, you would actually take a walk around and see that you end up in the same spot only after taking six left turns.
