Nottingham has unveiled a pioneering virtual reality classroom designed to enhance the teaching of engineering and design.
The University of Nottingham is employing 40 VR headsets, enabling students to digitally explore and design products.
Students can use headsets and hand controllers to disassemble virtual engines and conduct experiments in lifelike environments.
This technology also facilitates a more comprehensive sharing of ideas between lecturers and their classes, according to the university.
Moreover, to support learning beyond the traditional classroom setting, 90 wireless headsets are available for students to borrow, allowing them to pursue their studies from any location.
Digital learning director Simon Harrison said: “For us in engineering we want to leverage the software to enable them to be better designers.
“To enable them to make less mistakes, design more quickly and we want to give them [the students] time back so instead of spending ten hours on a piece of work they can do it in four hours.”
Fifth year student Hannah Snowden, says the VR experience resembles “real life”. “It’s not limited by physical real-world constraints, you’re just able to do so much more,” she said.
Another aim of the classroom is to allow real time collaboration across international campuses, as Nottingham’s China-based Ningbo campus has its own VR lab, so that students from across the world can work together in labs or in design-based exercises.
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