Smartphone Based Virtual Reality Systems in Classroom Teaching — A Study on the Effects of Learning Outcome

Virtual Reality (VR) has come up as a pinnacle of the ground breaking advances in computing power through developments in fields of electronics, software and mobile computing. It has been a topic of significant research and studies in recent years, given that 2016 is widely predicted to be the year where VR finds acceptability and affordability in mainstream consumer market. VR systems were first introduced to target entertainment and gaming, but numerous research and studies have shown its importance in educational purposes. There is a great potential in Virtual Reality Environments to serve as teaching aids in complementing and improving the education process. In spite of that, it is held back due to their bulky systems, complex setups and high cost, which limit their usage in versatile scenario.@@@@@@This study is being taken up to devise a solution that can address these problems using portable and simple VR setup with affordable hardware. The system used here takes help of Google's 'Cardboard' platform to provide the structure for Head Mounted Display while the display is provided by any smartphone that can be put inside the frame. This setup, other than being very easy to operate, is extremely cost effective and portable at the same time. This study aims to measure the feasibility of using the above mentioned VR system to improve the teaching process and the effect of this system on learning outcome. Through our experiments we intend to establish that such a setup is preferred by students for regular usage and improves their cognitive learning and participation.