IIT-Kharagpur researchers find a unique VR platform for teachers 

If you are a tech wizard, the term VR is nothing new for you. It means Virtual Reality and refers to a computer technology that simulates a real or imagined environment so that users can interact with it as if physically present. Research in the field of VR has already gone to great lengths, but it was yet to contribute to the education ecosystem, until recently. Okay, so what exactly changed now? Turns out, a group of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, a new VR platform, constructed exclusively for educators. 

This no code 360-degree VR educator platform has been developed in order to bridge the gap between teachers and students. The goal, according to Kaushal Kumar Bhagat, the lead researcher of the project and Assistant Professor at the university’s Advanced Technology Development Centre, is to redefine the dependence of teachers on other resources to create highly engaging content. Their source of inspiration was the pandemic-induced online classes that often lacked the real-world classroom interaction and collaboration among teachers and students. In fact, Bhagat and his team dedicated themselves into observing digital classes during the Covid-19 lockdown, to further materialise the concept.  

Sources also cite that it took nearly 18 months for the team to develop an open-source (accessible to all) 360-degree VR platform that is designed in such a way that it requires no prior coding experience, thus making it super easy and convenient for teachers to generate new content without any hassle and under 30 minutes. All they need are Android devices, although it is also supported on desktop.  

In this VR platform, educators can easily add audio free of cost, create quizzes and even bring in gaming elements to make the lessons interesting. All they need to do is to shoot photos or videos in a 360-degree angle, follow the basic instructions and upload the content that instantly becomes ready to be viewed on the VR platform. Here’s another catch though. Whether the students will really have an immersive experience or not depends upon what kind of VR headset (example: Google Cardboard) they are using. Needless to say, the latest and upgraded versions will do the best job.  

The IIT team of researchers believe that this VR platform will make the teaching-learning experience more interactive and engaging, thanks to the use of computer-generated graphics in a three-dimensional environment, that too barring any complexities. The idea is plain and simple, to reach out to all students irrespective of their location.   

Notably, the project was funded by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), New Delhi. Currently, the VR platform is only available in India, but will soon be spread across 54 other countries connected by the COL. The platform is already supported by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and are being used by them in proactive teachers’ training.