Students can read about the industrial revolution, go to the park nearby, or take a tour to Mars. They can dissect insects, or perform other research experiments.

All this can sound as real as you feel with  VR in education. They can let students interact with people, places, and things on and around the planets, in history, etc.

AR and VR are so relatable for education that it makes sense to use them. 89% of respondents say that this technology would be as ubiquitous as mobile devices by 2025.

Both AR and VR provide an immersive experience. There won’t be any need for a complex explanation or an unsatisfactory theoretical one. Students can take part in the learning and experience it as if it’s live.

But, wouldn’t you like to know about the kind of obstacles in the path? Knowing about the challenges will give you an idea on how to make VR app.

Dig in! Maybe you’ll find solutions in there.

  • Cost

One of the biggest issues in implementing VR in education is the availability of funds. Most institutes may not have the budget to implement VR. In such a situation, the cost of implementing new technologies, setting up the infrastructure, buying equipment, training cost would only prohibit the technology adoption.

However there’s a solution to it. There are affordable VR headsets in the market. For instance, Oculus headsets. They provide powerful headsets that too way with easier setups than traditional headsets.

Also, if you have a class of, say, 200 or more students, you can conduct lectures in batches without buying 200+ headsets at once. A batch of 20 to 30 would do the trick.

  • Content Development

Content is the center of the equation. If you don’t have quality content, technology won’t be that helpful. While creating content, you need to consider – effects, designing, visuals, content,technology, etc. Everything has to be in sync and of course, easy to understand.

Creating VR content is not like creating video and thus can be overwhelming.

But, that won’t be a problem, if you have a development team. They can help you build attractive, interactive content that’s easy to understand. You can also use tools like Unity to create content.

  • Health

The research on how VR is impacting physical and mental health is still in progress. There are no exact numbers to prove because the technology is new and not yet widely implemented in all industries.

It raises a question – how can we accept technology if we have only vague ideas about it? There are many positive sides to it as well – better learning, immersive experience, inclusivity, etc. We all know the effect of Pokemon Go. Initially, it was cool, but soon people forgot that a real-life exists out of the game. There were around 150,000 traffic accident cases, 256 deaths registered in the initial 148 days of its launch in the US.

Hence, health is a severe concern. But as a preventive measure, institutes can set a maximum of 1 hour for VR learning. You can set up virtual classrooms, ensuring it’s safe in there for students to move.

  • Cyber-Sickness

Just like motion sickness, computers and technology can cause nausea too. It’s called cyber-sickness. You see the motion on the screen in this sickness type, but you don’t feel it. On top of that, a screen can make you feel sick.

The thing is that you won’t know who has cybersickness unless it’s tested and proved. If one or the other student has cybersickness, they won’t be able to learn. It would hamper their productivity.

Well, there are ways to prevent it, and also technological improvement is diminishing it. The common techniques to prevent it include slowing the scroll speed, avoiding flashy displays, taking breaks, and shortening the screen time.

  • Transition Tech

Not everyone is born a scientist. Plus, while transitioning from one technology to another like online learning to AR/VR enabled learning, we need time to be comfortable. It would be the same for students and teachers. They would need time to adapt to the new formats and platforms. You can’t define the time required to get well-versed with the tech.

A few teachers may not be tech-savvy and might require longer to adapt. Others may blend in well a day or two. So, that could be a challenge. What if students require more time to get comfortable with headsets? It can affect learning.

Training them on technology from time to time can be a solution.

Overall, VR in education has a huge potential. We can’t deny that. However, you need to tackle certain challenges before going ahead with your “how to make VR app” procedure.

You need to find solutions for content availability, cost, cyber-sickness, health, etc.