Better than reality? Capitalizing on the capabilities of 360° Immersive Reality (IR) to meet student learning needs

Does online learning using 360° Immersive Reality (IR) actually improve learning outcomes for students as compared to current on-site learning modalities? You decide! The goal of this EdTech Tools demo is to showcase the strategic teaching and learning capabilities of 360° IR technology in an online career and technical higher education classroom. Presenters invite the audience to evaluate a specific use case illustrating how 360° IR was used to create a virtual space for adult learners designed to meet specific teaching and learning goals.

During the presentation, presenters introduce the audience to specific features of 360° IR by illustrating their use to create a process technology instructional ‘playground’. Focus will be on how learning experiences were designed to meet the specific instructional goals of differentiating instruction for students with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences, managing cognitive load, and teaching students to ‘think like an expert’ while they familiarized themselves with a novel technical environment.

The technological capabilities allowed for the design and development of a learning environment able to support unlimited student interaction, easily incorporate scaffolded support, automatically level instruction to meet the unique needs of each student, provide immediate feedback, and provide expert modeling while saving students in a rural environment the time and expense of onsite learning.