In today’s ultra-connected world, we’re used to having Zoom conversations with family and colleagues, opening Spotify to check out artists from around the world and using Google Translate to access content in any language.

Concerts and sporting events are among the few events that still bring large crowds together — as in up to 100,000 people — to share space, energy, camaraderie and just fun. Analog has been the way to go for most consumers, even as avant-garde companies started to experiment with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). After all, it’s the atmosphere of being with fellow fans that you can’t recreate effectively at home.

With more and more students facing uncertainties around tuition for online courses and the remote learning environments as we embark on the Fall 2020 school year, how can educators, particularly in fields that require off-the-page educational experiences (such as medicine) deliver an improved student experience? 

Dane Axelgard, VP Sales, North America at GIGXR, outlined how and why immersive learning is more vital than ever for healthcare training in 2020 in his presentation for the “Your Guide to Virtual Reality Healthcare Applications, Products and Services” virtual conference, co-hosted by IVRHA and BehaVR this past month.

Extended reality (XR) technologies like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) are transformative tools that are changing the way students access key information and skills in medical programs. Unlike lecture, books or video, XR allows students to master material through interactivity and deeper exploration.

Today's educators are constantly looking for new interactive tools to engage students. Virtual Reality (VR) has been recognized for some time as a key technology that can bring the educational experience to the next level, while Extended Reality (XR), which incorporates VR and Augmented Reality (AR), has become the new cutting edge of learning.

Healthcare students are better prepared for clinical situations when they experience realistic patient scenarios. Leading institutions like Otago Polytechnic School of Nursing are turning to immersive technologies to provide these experiences to their students. Otago was an early adopter of HoloPatient, a mixed-reality app that utilizes Microsoft's HoloLens 2. 

Until recently, the focus of Extended Reality (XR) technologies, which encompasses Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality, has been to provide simulated audiovisual experiences in a physical space. And while the industry is constantly looking to improve how we see and hear in the XR world, there are new technologies, such as haptics, that are bringing the sense of touch into the virtual space as well.

As medical workers continue to care for Coronavirus patients around the globe, uncertainties still surround many aspects of the illness. Information about rates of contagiousness and how best to care for patients is being updated and changing by the day, leaving many healthcare workers grappling for how they can best look after patients and keep themselves and co-workers safe at the same rate.  

As undergraduate and graduate students sit in limbo, universities around the world are contemplating what the upcoming Fall 2020 school year will look like. The Coronavirus pandemic has changed every aspect of work and life — and universities, uniquely, must manage risk in both classrooms and on-campus housing situations. 

In our E-book: Immersive Technologies in Healthcare Training, GIGXR explores the expansion of Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Realities in the healthcare industry.  We look at the current state and development of these Extended Realities (XR) and how learning and teaching can be enhanced with these resources.