Virtual Reality in Education

In the School of Education, we've started to explore the use of Virtual Reality (VR) in teaching and learning.

In 2019 we received a grant from the University of Sheffield Alumni Fund to purchase some VR headsets and 360° video cameras and this post shows you some of the things we've done so far and some other interesting examples.

The School of Education would like to acknowledge the generosity of alumni, staff and friends of the University who have given support through contributions to the University’s Alumni Fund.

An Alumni Fund Departmental grant given in 2019 has helped with the funding of this project.

The Equipment

With the Alumni Fund grant we purchased the following equipment:

Oculus Quest headsets - we purchased 10 of these which can be used in classes so students can experience immersive VR.

Insta360 One X cameras - we purchased two of these along with tripods. These are for recording 360° videos and taking 360° photos.

Zoom H3VR audio recorder - we purchased one of these surround audio recorders.

Testing the Cameras

I took the opportunity to pop down to a nearby park to test out the video quality of the cameras.

The following video was recorded in Weston park, Sheffield; edited with Adobe Premiere and uploaded to YouTube.

360 immersive video of the duck pond in Weston Park, Sheffield

To view the video on the Oculus Quest or other headset: open the Youtube VR app and search for "Weston Park Duck Pond".

I also took several still images on that day around the park and in the Arts Tower and put them together using the https://roundme.com/ app.

Short Tour of Sheffield in Round.me

The Chemistry Department have also used Round.me and produced a virtual Chemistry labs tour for their students.

Exploring VR for Teaching and Learning

We are working on projects at the moment, but the first completed project was in collaboration with Dr. Liz Chesworth, Lecturer in Early Childhood Education and Broomhall Nursery School & Children's Centre in Sheffield.

For this project, I took a series of "Child's-eye-view" pictures of the inside one of the classrooms at Broomhall School. The images showed how an early-years classroom could be setup for learning using a variety of activities. Many thanks to Bethany, a teacher at Broomhall, for setting up the classroom so well!

I then created a virtual tour of the classroom using Google Poly's Tour Creator (this has now closed down!). Liz and I added scene descriptions and hot-spots at points-of-interest with questions to prompt students viewing the tour to think about how and why the room layout had been designed that way.

You can view the tour, re-made on Roundme, here: