VIRTUAL REALITY AND
VIRTUAL IN ACADEMIC
INTRODUCTION
Definition
What is virtual reality(VR)?
A computer generated, immersive
(or wide field),multi-sensory information
program which tracks a user in real
time.
Virtual Environment (VE)

A computer generated world with which
the user can interact

Interaction can vary from looking around
to interactively modifying the world.
History
Year
Person(s) Responsible
Why it was important
1965
Ivan Sutherland
The beginnings of VR
1977
Dan Sandin, Richard Sayre and
Thomas Defanti
Interaction through body movement
1982
Bonnie MacBird (Writer)
The first computer- generated movie
1983
Myron Krueger
First virtual environment
1984
William Gibson (His assistant)
The term 'Cyberspace'
1987
Michael Piller (Writer)
The Holodeck, idea of immersive VR
1992
Stephen King (Official Website)
A look at the possible negative side of VR
1995
Silicon Graphics
Virtual Reality Modeling Language
1999
Larry and Andy Wachowski
Virtual Reality movie grosses $750M
worldwide
What is Immersive VR?
A type of VR in which the user becomes
immersed (deeply involved) in a virtual
world. it is also a form of VR that uses
computer related components.
Types
Immersive
 Augmented
 Text-based


Desktop (Window on a World)

Video Mapping
Types of Non-immersive VR
Text-based VR: when a reader of a
certain text form a mental model of this
virtual world in their head from the
description of people , places and things.
 Augmented VR: the idea of taking what
is real and adding to it in some way so
that user obtains more information from
their environment.

Applications
Architecture
 Training
 Medicine
 Engineering and Design
 E-Commerce
 Entertainment
 Manufacturing

Architecture
An area in which virtual reality has tremendous
potential is in architectural design. Already being
created are architectural "walk-throughs" that allow
designers and clients to examine homes and office
buildings, inside and out, before they're built. With
virtual reality, designers can interactively test a building
before construction begins.
Medicine

researchers are using virtual reality technology to
create 3-D ultrasound images to help doctors
diagnose and treat congenital heart defects in
children.

The medical application of VR was stimulated initially
by the need of medical staff to visualise complex
medical data, particularly during surgery and for
surgery planning, and for medical education and
training.
Training

United States: The military used it as flight simulators
to train pilots.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) use VR technology to construct a model of
the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) .in September,
1993, approximately 100 members of the NASA
HST flight team received over 200 hours of training
using the VR...
Devices
Head Mounted Displays
(HMD):
Was the first device
providing its wearer with
an immersive experience.
Evans and Sutherland
demonstrated a headmounted stereo display
already in 1965.
Binocular Omni-Orientation Monitor
(BOOM)
BOOM is a head coupled
stereoscopic display
device. Screens and
optical system are
housed in a box that is
attached to a multi-link
arm.
Cave Automatic Virtual
Environment (CAVE)
A room with projections on
all walls, floor and ceiling
 The users wear shutter
glasses to get a 3D view of
the world.
 The users are able to move
and control the environment
with some kind of input
mechanism

◦ Camera
◦ Device in hand
3D VIDEO Eyewear
winner of a 2005 & 2006 Consumer Electronics Show Design Award.
VR Price: $499.00
Virtual reality Modeling Language
(VRML)
Most exciting is the ongoing development
of VRML on the World Wide Web. In
addition to HTML (Hypertext Markup
Language), that has become a standard
authoring tool for the creation of home
pages, VRML provides three-dimensional
worlds with integrated hyperlinks on the
Web. Home pages become home spaces.
Job Opportunities




The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology's (EPFL) Computer
Graphics Lab has several openings for PhD students and Post
Doctoral fellows in the areas of Computer Animation,Virtual
Reality, and Computer Vision. Selected candidates will work on
one or several of the following topics:
Motion Control of virtual characters (kinematics, dynamics, and
capture)
Human body deformations
Parametric animation models (e.g. running) from video analysis
Interaction between virtual humans and objects in the
Augmented Reality framework.
Future
In the past, computing power has doubled
approximately every 18 months, a trend that
is known as Moore’s Law. If this is the case
then we should have a computer powerful
enough to run immersive VR programs in our
own homes by the year 2037.
Virtual education
It refers to instruction in a learning environment where teacher and
student are separated by time or space or both.
Teacher provides course content through multimedia resources,
internet and video conferencing. Students receive and communicate
with the teacher via the same technologies.
Characteristics of virtual education
 Online education using the internet
 Cyber schools
 Virtual universities
 virtual program (Courses)
Instruction modes for virtual education Are text based using HTML, Power Point or PDF documents

Virtual classroom

Virtual operating room -

Hypertext courses
 Video
-
-
-based courses
-

Audio based courses
-

Animated courses
-
Live teacher instruction and feed back
online
A space to learn the basic procedure
before real-life one
structured course materials . Hyperlinks
connect text, multi media parts and
exercise
Live face to face classroom courses
students watch the video
like video but only the sound track of
the lecturer
Course material by animation
Cont….
Web- Supported textbook courses – Based on specific text books
 Peer-to-peer courses
– Courses on -demand text
books without a prepared
curriculum new one emerged in
2007.
 Social networking
– Students can address a problem
Teacher will act as guides and
resources but it is up to the
students to present, discuss etc.
Cont….
Communication and interaction
 Asynchronous instruction
 subsequent discussion
 Content delivered at the students pace
 Teacher acts as a guide
 Communication through discussion books and email
 Students can interact with other students via notes, texts etc.
 Assignment submission electronically
 Collaborative communication outside occur through blogs,
wikis multimedia tools etc.
Virtual learning environment
Definition:
It is an education system based on the web that models conventional real –
world education by integrating a set of equivalent virtual concepts for tests,
homework, classes classrooms and the like even museums and other external
academic resources
Similar terms used
Learning management system (LMS) related concepts)
Content management system (CMS) (only content)
Learning content management system (LCMS) for corporate training overall infrastructure
in a institution
Managed learning environment (MLE)
Learning support system (LSS)
Online learning centre (OLC)
Learning platform (LP)
Computer –mediated communication (CMC)
Online education
Library management system (LMS)
(now integrated library system ILS)
Components of VLE
 Course syllabus
 Administrative information about the course
 Notice board for current information
 Additional resources e.g. supplementary reading
 Self assessment
 Formal assessment
 Support for communications (e-mail, twitter etc)
 Access rights for instructors, course staff and students
 Documentation and statistics
 Submissions by the students
 Provision for presentation with hyperlinks
Use of VLE by educational
institution
Economize on the time of teaching staff and the cost of
 instruction
 Facilitate the presentation of online learning
 Provide students instruction in a flexible manner
 Provide instruction to the current generation
 Facilitate the networking of instruction between
 campuses and colleges.
 Provide for the reuse of common material
 provide automatic integration of the results of students
 learning in to campus information system.

Standards


Shareable content object reference model
For content –IMS global consortium
Assessing VLE
 In 2003, Walker –Survey instrument to assess



psychosocial learning environment of VLE instructor support
student interaction and collaboration, personal relevance,
authentic learning , active learning and student autonomy
Distance education learning environment survey (DELES) -For
students to assess systems available –on web –survey
Virtual learning environment Sloodle, , 3D VLE called Edusim
Umgumo-under development.
A virtual school or cyber
school
An institution that teaches courses entirely through
online and accredited schools
Agencies of accreditation
◦ Middle states association of schools & colleges
◦ North west association of accredited schools
 First school awarded by middle states association Pennsylvania cyber charter school in Midland
 History –Descendants of correspondence schools
(distance learning)
 Fees – free if state pays

Materials
Adobe systems products
 Jase products
 Macromedia products
 Carel products etc.
Advantages and disadvantages

◦ Need not attend classes and travel
◦ Online study groups meat using Elluminate
wimber etc.
Cont….
No direct interaction hence lack of socialization
Staying on task-difficult in home environment
A virtual school library
 It is a PreK
-12 library, a subunit of a virtual school.
 Watson and Ryar - Report 50% increase /annum in US
 Key component
- Development of virtual schools library
communication portals.
 System available - I Google page and an accompanying
blog to deliver RRS (i.e. Z/US)- based
library services to students and educators
Cont….
A Virtual university
 It is one that provides higher education programs through electronic
media, typically the Internet
 History – Distance education –the precursor
 Open university in UK –First one in 1960-concept of communications
technology
 Wireless university – first discussed at the BBC by J.C. Stobbart
 UK with first idea of teleuniversity
 By Mid-Nineties OU –used the internet
 In 1970 Ivan Illich –concept of use of computer networks for learning
 In 1971 –George Kasey –Gave lecturers on philosophy of
communications De-Design
 By 1972 –he established Media free times a periodical now web pages
Cont…..
In 1992 –Virtual class lab moved on to
the internet
 In 1995- A book “In search of the virtual
class: education in an information society”
by Tiffin and Lalita Rajasingham
 In 1995 –OU – Catalonia –First virtual
university

Teaching modes



Two way audio –visual network
Web –based
Hypertext ,videos, audios, emails and video
conferencing
Quality –Questions remain about accreditation
and the quality of assessment .
CONCLUSION
Everything is going to be virtual in future .As we have to
live and face the future gain more knowledge on virtual.
In medical Fraternity virtual is replacing diagnostic
procedure, treatment etc. Hence it is high time to
introduce virtual in nursing curriculum .
TAKE HOME MASSAGE
Virtual Reality Treatment Theatre cinema –
VR in health management and voice care.
Virtual Reality certificate course part –I