Virtual Reality has a lot of potential uses, and not only in gaming and entertainment, although these are two areas that are likely to help drive the development and improvement of both hardware and software. VR is also being used in retail for example, by offering things like virtual mannequins and is also proving popular in education and training. In these instances, VR offers accessibility to experiences and locations that might not otherwise be accessible.
Surgeons can practice operations before they are let loose on cadavers or on real patients. Even experienced surgeons can benefit, because they would be able to practice a surgical procedure before they undertake it for real, so it could save lives while encouraging ground-breaking surgery that doctors might otherwise be reluctant to embark on.
In this article, I’ll outline 5 fundamental and revolutionary ways that VR can be used for education and professional training.
Training
No amount of theoretical learning can prepare people for the practical. However, in some professions it would be criminal to simply let trainees loose, and it is this that can prevent some highly skilled professionals from being able to take further steps towards qualification. Think airline pilots, soldiers, and surgeons. All of these professions would benefit from being able to practice on an immersive and lifelike Virtual Reality experience before they are given physical access to planes, guns, or scalpels.
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Professionals can gain hands-on experience without actually having to go hands on. This can save considerable money in training costs, it can prevent injuries and loss of life, and it means that when a professional qualifies in any of these kinds of position, they will be better equipped to deal with the situations and tasks that are in front of them.
Recruitment
Students tend to visit universities and colleges before deciding which one is right for them, and the educational institutions aim to put their best foot forward. However, this limits candidates to those institutions that they can easily access in order to attend open days and interviews.
Through VR recruitment, it is possible for universities and students to come together without having to even be in the same city, or even the same country. Using a VR headset it would be possible for potential candidates to “visit” the campus, sit in on lessons without getting in the way, and even undertake interviews with faculty and staff.
Design And Development
Virtual Reality has many potential uses, and as the technology advances, it will become increasingly popular in many areas of life. It seems likely that it will become popular as a gaming tool, and it will also become more prominent in other areas of entertainment too. Imagine not only being able to watch a war film, but be able to choose what you watch. While it is true that development is likely to cost considerably more as a result of needing to provide greater views and more immersive experiences, there is the potential to turn a greater profit too.
More and more professions will turn to the use of Virtual Reality. Surgeons may start to use them to master rare surgical procedures, and architects can use them to imagine projects without having to invest thousands in creating prototypes.
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With some VR programming experience, the architect or designer would be able to create a CAD design and implement it in VR. The client, fellow designers, and other professionals would then be able to experience the design and even collaborate on the creation of the building’s interior and exterior. A whole project could be designed, problems identified and rectified, and the exact workflow for creating the building finished even before the first brick is laid in the foundations.
Many other professions are likely to find ways to implement VR into their daily tasks too. Designers and developers can create the 3D models that are used in game development, while mechanics and engineers can use VR development to help them conduct their design work.
Distance Learning
There is a reason that a lot of education goes on in classrooms rather than on computer screens or in other locations. The teacher or educator can have the attention of the entire student facility, can show working examples, and can encourage improved education and retention levels by interacting with the class.
However, it isn’t always viable for all students to make it to the classroom, and this is one of the reasons that distance learning has become so popular. Students from all over the world can work towards a qualification without having to move to the other side of the world to enjoy the level of education that they desire. Distance learning could greatly benefit from the implementation of VR in educational facilities. Even the smallest classroom could virtually hold thousands of pupils, and by integrating learning experiences into the design of the VR experience, it is possible to really attract some of the brightest minds to partake in any subject.
Experience Education
Field trips and educational trips are incredibly popular with educators and with kids alike. Visiting farms, gaining first-hand experience of Roman walls, or even seeing how manufacturing facilities work, provides insight that cannot be gained in the classroom or from a book. There are some locales or situations where visits are not possible, however, and experiences can be offered to students without having to take them out of school for the day.
Very few people will ever enjoy the privilege of visiting the moon or the International Space Station, while geological surveys in inhospitable areas of the world require special and expensive planning.
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For students that are considering careers that would require this kind of work or working in these kinds of locales, it is very difficult to teach the difficulties of working in these kinds of conditions, and because these conditions make areas inaccessible, it means that many students will never be able to the enjoy first-hand experience of these situations before considering whether a particular career is the right choice for them.
Virtual Reality enables people to experience these situations, cutting costs on those trips that are viable but expensive, and offering access to experiences that would be otherwise impossible to teach.
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This post was contributed by Matt Jackson. Matt is a content writer and blog author for Best 3D Model, researching and writing news on emerging technologies including VR, AR, and 3D printing.
Featured Image Source: Touchstone Research
