Virtual reality headsets enter computer labs in Indian schools, colleges

About three years ago the school had paid around Rs 3 lakh. 4-5 lakhs to buy 32 VR headsets. It costs about Rs. 1.5 lakh per year to renew the contract of these headsets, found them as an effective tool for teaching students. For example, if a teacher wants to talk about a tiger, he can also show a virtual simulation of a tiger moving.

Experiential learning through VR headsets is taking place in both schools and colleges in India. According to Mrs. Ballyjepalli Ravi, Principal of Mrs. The Godavari School cited above, students get a sense of what is being taught when they interact with the VR environment. He said the school gives 20-minute sessions in VR daily to the students, depending on the availability of headsets.

Ankur Agarwal, founder of Viativ Labs, a company that provides learning simulation and education technology, says it has also distributed VR headsets to schools in Kohima, Nagaland. Agarwal said that the use of VR in education is happening both in metros and through government intervention in other states.

“The government is buying VR sets from us for educational purposes. We are working on a project in the Northeast where we are setting up several AR/VR laboratories in schools there.” Delhi branch. “So far, we have successfully deployed teaching solutions in a wide range of schools across the country, and received letters of interest from every state in the country,” he said.

In a way, VR and Augmented Reality (AR) used in schools are a step ahead of the use of smart boards and whiteboards for teaching.

Tanay Pratap, chief technology officer and founder of InVact Metaversity, says virtual worlds will be “so precise” that it will be difficult to “distinguish between what is a metaverse and what is the real universe” in the future.

Invoke Metavarsity, a startup founded by former Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari and Pratap, raised $5 million earlier this month. The company plans to capitalize on the Metaverse concept, popularized by firms such as Meta (formerly Facebook) and Microsoft, to create a full-fledged virtual university. “Top universities can come to your bedroom. We are building campuses in the virtual world,” Maheshwari said.

Schools, colleges and edtech firms aside, central educational bodies are also starting to take interest. Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) director Biswajit Saha said the board is in discussions with several VR solution providers to develop science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) content. He added that it is “a matter of time” when such material is ready for expert review.

“Once they (experts) clear it, a pilot will come out. We are exploring web-based VR education using open source solutions. We want to promote open source technology so that it can be outsourced at any time. Schools and school boards can use such a product very easily without any license cost and all,” he said.

VR education has its advantages. For example, Agarwal pointed out that any student can attempt to build a rocket in a college VR simulation without any additional materials.

But while an immersive experience offers an advantage, the hardware needed for good VR content comes at a cost. Agarwal said VR setups may come at a premium of 20-30 percent to the traditional cost of computers, but the cost is also coming down.

There are some other challenges as well. Dr Umesh Vaidya, a Consultant Neonatologist and Pediatrician at Cloudnine Group of Hospitals, Pune, said that prolonged exposure to VR can be harmful as well. He said that VR is safe for children only when 10 per cent of the total curriculum or about 30 minutes is conducted in VR.

He added that excessive exposure to VR can affect a child’s overall development. They also cautioned that screen-based learning is supposed to be interactive, but could have a negative impact on overall learning. He said that while education through VR/AR is good, it cannot replace physical education.