Immersive learning as an educational alternative

The digital transformation has reached all sectors, including the education sector. Technology and computer science have not only become key subjects for students, they are also an important part of the teaching methodology itself.

The distance learning, customized Artificial Intelligence tutors, interactive experiences, educational video games... are different uses of technology that are transforming classrooms. Among them, immersive learning stands out, both at the school level and in employee training.

These innovations promise to create more personalized, interactive and accessible learning experiencesrevolutionizing the way we learn and teach.

In this article, we will take a closer look at the advantages and opportunities offered by immersive learning. Not only as an educational alternative, but also as a complementary methodology to traditional teaching methods. Its combination, physical-digital, is synonymous with motivation, to put into practice the lessons learned and to deepen the subjects in a fun and entertaining way.

What is immersive learning?

Immersive learning is the educational approach that seeks to create interactive, immersive learning environments that encourage the active participation of students in the learning process. Immersing students in virtual scenarios where they can experience and discover concepts in a practical and tangible way.

Students are immersed in situations that test their skills, knowledge and senses. This favors the implementation of the subject matter, the assimilation of concepts and the knowledge of new challenges. Students not only observe or listen, but also live the educational experience. Facilitating the learner to empathize more with the content.

Benefits of immersive learning that you should know

Incorporating this type of education is a major step forward for the schools, universities and companies that are committed to the internal training of their employees. A step that offers a series of educational benefits that can be summarized as follows:

1. Learning by doing

Immersive learning means that, more than ever before, we are putting into practice the learning by doing (learning by doing), turning the way we are used to learning upside down. The immersion offered by these technologies opens up a new range of educational experiences that facilitate knowledge retention and increase student interest.

Thanks to the innovations of the Extended Reality teachers can enrich and deepen the learning programs, being able to teach with the support of holograms, in Artificial Intelligence tutors/avatars or in virtual simulations designed so that the student autonomously internalizes the knowledge while testing it. As in the Virtual Training developed by Boehringer Ingelheim.

2. Encouraging creativity

One of the key benefits of immersive learning is the ability to enhancing students' creativity, curiosity and motivation in the classroom. Through these experiences, they discover new ways of seeing and understanding the subject, encouraging them to continue discovering and wondering what lies behind. Demonstrating that play and technology are great ways to learn.

The best example is found in Chromvillea creative learning app based on coloring sheets whose characters come to life through screens and educational games.

3. Expansion of the educational experience

With the entry of the immersive learning in educational programsThe new technology changes the way children and students learn about the world. With this technology they can visit any country or travel to the past, the future or other planets, all without leaving the classroom. Thus allowing them to expanding the educational experience, experiencing new situations firsthand y to understand in a simple waymore complicated academic concepts.

Among the educational projects of this type that are already underway is the Kai XR platform. Where, through Virtual Reality, every child can live different educational experiences.Visit the top of a windmill or watch a rocket being prepared for launch as a member of NASA.

Gamification of learning

Immersive learning is undoubtedly one of the main avenues for the gamification of educational systems. This trend unifies all the techniques and uses of the mechanics of video games in actions and sectors, until now, alien to this playful world. By transferring the more entertaining challenges and rewards to professional education and training.

One of the educational programs that has already been launched and that explores the possibilities of gamification is the virtual space of Aprendiendo a Emprender by Fundación Ibercaja. A virtual campus designed for schoolchildren The program is aimed at 10 and 11 year olds and through challenges, quizzes and levels brings the world of business closer to schools.

You may be interested in → Virtual Reality in education: features and benefits

Key Extended Reality technologies for immersive learning: examples

Immersive learning, as we have seen so far, is based on the union of the real world and the virtual world to enhance the involvement, motivation and deepening of the students' knowledge of the subject matter. Immersive learning has become one of the main future trends in the education sector. This is based on different Extended Reality technologies such as:

Virtual Reality

One of the main technologies of immersive learning is the Virtual Reality. Its potential at both the educational and professional levels lies in the possibility of developing simulations and immersive training.

In the industrial sector, immersive VR learning offers the possibility of autonomously train in complex and/or dangerous tasksThe company's own machinery is used for this purpose, without the need to allocate extra resources such as trainers or the machinery itself.

Among the solutions and examples of immersive learning already developed in this area are all of the Virtual Training line. Customized Virtual Reality training companies in different industrial sectors, such as the automotive industry, the professional training of Global Spedition's employees.

Augmented Reality

The Augmented Reality offers the possibility of approaching the real world from new perspectives and with new eyes.combining the real world with the virtual world, creating environments full of information that add value to educational activities.

Instead of viewing simple images on the projectors, you can show three-dimensional models of outer space, parts of the body, geometric figures or even historical moments, as if they were in the classroom itself through Augmented Reality devices, from Mixed Reality or of Spatial Computing.

You can learn more about this technology at features and benefits of Augmented Reality in education.

Metaverse and virtual spaces

In the education of future generations, the Metaverse not only enables the development of more immersive and interactive experiences. It also allows recreate environments and even virtual campuses that, in an active and personalized way, feed the curiosity and involvement of the students. This is essential for immersive learning.

This allows, in the same space, the student to have access to all content, attend online classes, always have the support of your AI avatar/assistant at your disposal and find a meeting place with the rest of your classmates.

Virtual spaces such as KAI XR Create, an educational virtual world where it is the students themselves who build it while developing their intelligence and spatial vision, as well as their digital skills.

Artificial Intelligence

If there is one technology that is revolutionizing the present and future of education, it is Artificial Intelligence. From customizing the educational experience or automating repetitive tasksArtificial Intelligence applied to education offers great advantages for our educational systems. Such as the possibility of developing a new form of personalized tutoring through AI avatars.

They can answer their doubts, offer them advice and even ask them questions to help them internalize the subjects. All this, in addition, with the registration of their scores and evaluation, developing a database on the evolution of their learning that helps teachers to receive a personalized analysis of each student. Training-focused avatars such as IRIA, the newest member of the Iveco Academy team.

Discover the AI potential in this area in our content → Advantages and disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence in education.

Challenges and future of immersive learning

Education is living a time of great changes and revolutions. Online classes, microlearning, autonomous training, gamification, Virtual Reality simulations... different uses of technology applied to training that present great challenges and opportunities for educational methodologies and programs.

All players in the education sector, in one way or another, are going to evolving towards more immersive and personalized learning models for each learner. Therefore, it must be taken into account:

Emerging trends. Every day new and interesting educational proposals emerge based on emerging trends in this field, among which in this article we highlight immersive learning.

Future technological innovations. Data analysis, future advances in Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain technology for security and certification of diplomas and documents... there are many technological innovations that will mark the future of education.

Imascono immersive learning projects

Either through simulations and virtual training, customized training materials, gamified trainings or Artificial Intelligence tutorsimmersive learning projects are already a reality in the educational world. And they are going to be a revolution in the future of education.

At Imascono we believe that immersive learning offers major advantages and opportunities for transforming teaching methods we all know. We seek to be more aware of the different rhythms of each student, and also through our artificial intelligence services for companiesamong others, you will be able to go a step further in the deepening of the students in the different subjects.

Would you like to learn more about our educational projects based on immersive learning? Contact with us and our engineering team will be happy to answer all your questions.