There are few chances in today's world to gain and maintain attention, and this represents the key benefit from VR, for education.
Removing distractors means that sustained, focused concentration on the topic on hand can lead to higher order thinking skills.
This is a huge benefit with regards to student affect. Allow learners to fully commit to learning without fear of judgement, or prying eyes.
Simply having a VR device will not confer all of the benefits of immersive learning. The device matters because every teacher hopes for the following:
It would be great if VR devices were like TVs, and you could just buy one and get started. But that's not the reality. There are two camps with respect to devices, 3 DoF vs 6 DoF. In both cases, you are in the scene and interacting with learning content. Both are immersive.
One, 6 DoF, allows/promotes more movement for a greater sense of immersion. But as with all things in life, there is a trade-off, and in most cases, what you give up for 6 DoF is not worth a move to that device.
VR Content is very heavy, so it's best and easiest (for the user) to have preloaded content modules, rather than relying on loading and offloading heavy content pieces... most often putting a huge dependancy on supremely reliable internet connectivity, which never falters, glitches, or is down. Does that sound like the reality of your classroom?An online solution is easiest for a company to deliver, but not in the user's best interest.
The name, Sensible-VR, was chosen with purpose, reason, and intent, based on the predominant forces within the VR in education industry, till date. There have been incredible promises made, yet an inability to deliver something meaningful. Here are some of the claims made, and the unfortunate reality.
"We have an offline solution!"
They don't. Take a close look and ask the relevant questions. You'll either find that the content resides online (you need to retrieve before using... a pain), or the content is so light that it is only a picture.
"We have a classroom or lab solution!"
Why? VR is a uniquely personal experience, greatly enhancing learning. Why take that away, and transform it into a group experience? Done as a group means:
"6 DoF is better!"
It isn't. Go through the videos in the Learn More section and you will soon understand this far better than the self-procalimed experts.
"We have 2000 pieces of interactive content!"
They don't. Those virtue signalling about the breadth of their content have put large amounts of fillers in (simple, static pictures), or claim that 360° YouTube videos are their content. In the most egregious and deceptive cases, they take one module and classify it as having been made for Grade 8, change the module name and then classify it as having been made for Grade 11. This is a wildly dishonest way of doubling and tripling numbers. Unfortunately, there are bad actors out there. Beware.