Immersive Learning - A Complete Guide

Introduction

The average human attention span, according to popular studies, is about 12 seconds. For online teachers, the first 12 seconds with your students can make or break your course. But, in a world full of distractions, how can you capture and maintain everyone's attention 100% of the time? Using technology is one approach to have a big impact on your students. You can use virtual reality to create an immersive learning environment. In online classes, immersive learning can help filter out distractions while also removing boredom. If you're wondering what immersive learning is or how you can use it, this is the blog where you will get all the information regarding immersive learning.

What is Immersive Learning in Education?

Traditional classroom learning methods focus heavily on auditory and textual learning modes. This has major and widely acknowledged shortcomings, whether in an educational or work-related training context. Every learner is unique, and their processing and retention of knowledge reflect this. For many, providing interesting and interactive content provides a more inclusive and accessible learning experience, particularly for individuals who prefer a visual and kinesthetic learning approach.

A great way to implement modern teaching methods into your classroom is by using Teachmint - an integrated school platform. With the help of Teachmint, you can conduct classes from any corner of the world and manage them effectively.

Immersive learning engages learners in content by using artificial or simulated surroundings. Immersive learning allows you to bring different circumstances to life for your students and have a big impact on them. This one-of-a-kind teaching method allows you to mimic real-life scenarios for your students. Learners can affect the result of each scene in immersive learning scenarios. They do not, however, have to cope with real-world consequences because they operate in safe and regulated conditions. Immersive learning has been shown to greatly increase levels of engagement and motivation.

Immersive learning is a highly successful method for many students to expand their knowledge and skills. It offers artificially manufactured, digitally created content and surroundings that effectively imitate real-life scenarios, allowing new skills and methods to be learned and developed. Learners aren't only passive observers; they can be active participants who have a direct impact on outcomes. Furthermore, it provides a risk-free and secure environment in which learning can be repeated and success reliably monitored. The sky is the limit when it comes to practice-based learning.

What is an Immersive Learning Environment?

Immersive learning environments (ILEs) are learning scenarios created with a range of approaches and software tools, such as game-based learning, simulation-based learning, and virtual 3D worlds.

Types of Immersive Learning Technology

From immersive learning in schools to practical work-based training to informal educational experiences like interactive museum exhibitions, teachers must first become familiar with the many sorts of technologies.

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) immerses students in alternate digital worlds. Content is accessed using VR headgear like as the HTC Vive or Oculus Quest, which are frequently paired with headphones and hand controllers that allow the student to explore their virtual surroundings.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality mixes the actual environment with digital stuff rather than filtering it out. Digital assets can be flat and 2D, which is ideal for instructional content, or more sophisticated and 'real' in 3D. Content can be activated by certain items or geographical locations. Mobile technologies, such as smartphones and tablets, allow the learner to easily access content. Pokémon Go and Snapchat filters are two well-known examples.

Mixed Reality

Mixed reality mixes virtual and augmented reality features. It, like augmented reality, superimposes digital content on the real environment. This material is tied to and interacts with real-world items. The primary distinction between mixed and augmented reality is that digital assets in mixed reality can be clearly covered by real-world objects.

360 Film

360-degree video is typically captured live rather than created by a machine. Despite the fact that you can access this content through a VR headset and become totally immersed in an environment, the learner is anchored by the filmmaker's point of view. This means that the learner can move their heads to see the world around them, but they can't walk around independently or engage with their surroundings, so interactivity is lost. It's an excellent approach to introduce virtual field trips, which transport students to far-flung locations without requiring them to leave the classroom.

Immersive Learning vs Experiential Learning

Though they are closely linked, immersive learning and experiential learning should not be mistaken. The following are the key distinctions between immersive and experiential learning.

Benefits of Immersive Learning

The following are the benefits of immersive learning:

Improved Learning Through Doing

Immersive learning is based on decades of neuroscience study, which indicates that digital content tricks our brains, causing us to react to immersive situations in the same way we would in the real world. Immersive learning is a game changer for practice-based learning since it simulates how we would react in real-life settings.

Provides a Distraction Free Environment

With the advancement of mobile and digital technology, our life has become more full of diversions that we just cannot avoid. However, this has the potential to harm learning experiences and a learner's capacity to learn and retain information. Virtual reality is an especially powerful tool in this regard since it blocks out the actual world, creating a distraction-free setting in which learners can entirely focus on the job at hand.

Practice Makes Perfect

Repetition helps to perfect approaches and boosts learning retention greatly. Immersive technologies allow learners to repeat activities and experiment with varied outcomes based on their actions and reactions. This is especially important for practical training, as it aids in the development of muscle memory. It also helps in perfecting specific procedures where errors in the actual world could be disastrous, such as delicate surgical skills for medical students.

Safe Space to Learn

Whether you want your students to explore remote and dangerous locations, or teach new methods and procedures, immersive learning provides a safe and risk-free environment for them to explore and learn from their mistakes.

Best Practices for Effective Learning

Immersive learning, like any other kind of education or training, exists to broaden a learner's knowledge base or equip them with new abilities. Adopting immersive technologies can improve a learner's educational experience significantly, but their successful creation and implementation can be difficult.

When incorporating immersive technologies into their education and training programs, teachers can take the following practical steps:

Exploring whether immersive learning is the best learning tool

Remember that immersive learning is only another way to engage with a learner; it is not the primary engine. Before enrolling in an immersive learning program, ensure that your learning objectives and expected outcomes are clear and that immersive technology will assist you in achieving them. Introducing technology for the sake of introducing technology risks turning it into a pricey and ineffective novelty.

Selecting the Best Technology for the Job

With each immersive technology having its own set of advantages and disadvantages, selecting the best one for the job is critical. A significant component is the subject matter - for example, transporting a learner to Mars may work well in VR but be less effective in AR. Other factors to consider are whether you want it to be a shared experience, how much physical room and time you have available, and, most importantly, what your budget is. In addition to content, the technology must be age appropriate; for example, if a child is of an age where they would be accompanied by an adult in the real world, would you want to place them in a completely immersive, solitary VR space?

Clear onboarding and a secure environment

Immersive technologies can be entertaining and interesting learning tools, but they can also be intimidating to first-time users. It is critical to ensure that the student feels safe and understands what they are doing. Before beginning any experience, provide your learner clear and easy instructions on how the hardware works, what to expect in the experience (and what is expected of them), and how to exit an experience if they are uncomfortable.

Consider how you will help the student through the experience, for as by offering a pleasant avatar guide for prompts and navigation.

Structure preparation

If you're used to planning classroom-based content, you might have to reconsider the structure of an immersive learning experience. Remember that the learner has significantly more power, thus different scenarios and behaviors must be anticipated and storyboarded. Keep in mind that bite-sized experiences are significantly more successful at keeping learners engaged and focused - a maximum of roughly 20 minutes for even the most experienced immersive users.

Maintain a learner-centered approach.

Whether you are teaching primary school children or highly trained professionals, each immersive learning experience must be user-centered. When creating immersive material, you must consider their technological capabilities as well as their tolerance for the duration.

Conclusion

Immersive learning is a fantastic approach for people of all ages and levels of expertise to increase their knowledge base and polish new abilities. Technological advancements in recent years, such as the lower cost of VR headsets and the rising use of mobile devices, have resulted in the mainstreaming of immersive technologies.

These advancements are allowing teachers to embrace and leverage the power of immersive learning - and learners to study without boundaries and reach their full potential. While immersive learning cannot replace traditional learning methods, it can dramatically improve learning engagement and impact. And that is an amazing lesson for all of us to learn!

If you are not yet ready to implement immersive learning but want to deviate from the traditional teaching approach, you can try Teachmint which is an integrated school platform. With the help of Teachmint, you can create an engaging learning experience for your students with a wide variety of features. You can invite students to collaborate with features like online whiteboard. The best thing about this platform is that it provides a one-stop solution for school operations as well like fee management, admission management, and much more.