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Forget Zoom School. For Some Students, Class Is in Session in VR


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Stanford University students participating in a discussion on Zoom while working together collaboratively as avatars in virtual reality.

Said Chris Dede, a professor of learning technologies in Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, "It's really a matter of thinking about which use cases are the things that make VR useful, and then focusing on those use cases in instruction."

Credit: Stanford University Virtual Human Interaction Lab

More schools and universities are conducting classes in virtual reality, especially given the availability of better and less expensive VR headsets.

The University of Pennsylvania's Farah Jan held her first class in VR last year, using an app she designed called Aristotle and Quest 1 and 2 headsets to gather around a virtual conference table.

Jan said, "It kind of focuses the classroom," as students are less distracted by texts and emails and their avatars will droop noticeably if they take their headsets off while in the VR classroom.

However, VR headsets remain too pricey for many schools, and it is still difficult to determine when and how the technology will be most useful.

Said Chris Dede of Harvard University, "It's really a matter of thinking about which use cases are the things that make VR useful, and then focusing on those use cases in instruction."

From CNN Business
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