When you think of virtual reality, the first thing that may come to mind is video games or the entertainment industry and while that’s a fair assumption, VR is making a move to the education and business world. VR offers a controlled environment for mimicking real-life scenarios with little to no risk for the person in it, making it ideal to train employees
What is VR?
VR or Virtual Reality was a buzzword Hollywood used to let you know the latest science fiction movie was going to be really good. There’s a reason The Matrix was so successful, and that is because there’s an appeal to going into a strange, exciting, or even dangerous world from the comfort of your own home. That the mistakes you make in the virtual world won’t haunt you in your real one.
Virtual reality is a simulated experience that can occur anywhere in the world. VR experiences involve multi-projected environments that include more heightened senses like touch, similar to what you’d expect from a 4D production.
1. The use of VR in training and testing leads to higher test scores
In recent years, the use of virtual reality (VR) in education is seeing teachers expand learning for horizons in some significant ways, including accommodating students’ different learning styles and introducing them to firsthand scenarios they wouldn’t have otherwise been able to experience.
It makes sense that virtual reality would improve learning and testing—it’s immersive, engaging and experiential all in one. Instead of engaging one of the senses, it engages multiple. Not to mention, people are just more likely to pay attention to their testing environment, as being fully immersed in a simulation leaves less room to get distracted from the exam at hand.
2. Art mimics life
The more realistic the VR, the better prepared your students will be.
VR offers a controlled environment for mimicking real-life scenarios with little to no risk for the person in it, making it ideal to train employees in day-to-day situations they will face on the job, with absolutely no risk if they make mistakes. Mistakes on the job can cost money at best, the health and safety of employees and customers at worst, so it’s best to test their skills and abilities in the most realistic way possible.
Mistakes in the virtual world are often encouraged, as coded simulations in the VR environment can show employees what happens when certain mistakes are made and the real-life consequences. It’s a powerful visual that they are much likelier to remember.
Large companies should be able to not only ensure that all of their staff is expertly skilled and competent, but they should also be able to collaborate easily and establish a testing environment that makes administering exams to your students and employees easy and painless.
VR is certainly nothing new, but it’s implications in the e-assessment world are being seriously explored!
