The usefulness of virtual reality in lecture rooms

Technology has come to stay in lecture rooms. It offers multiple uses both to save the distance of the actual context and to enrich learning. At CEU Universities it has been present for years in the daily life of our students; without doubt, this commitment to digitalization and the technological transformation have been essential for the swift adaptation required by the closing of academic centres due to the pandemic. Therefore in only 48 hours online lessons were underway.

Simulators and virtual reality apps can serve students to better visualize abstract concepts and even to interact with the. Also it is a tool especially useful to show campus and installations to international students interested in studying at CEU Universities. Thanks to virtual reality you can visit buildings and know lecture rooms as if in a real visit for example with the virtual tour of the Higher Polytechnic School of Universidad CEU or the Open day of CEU Abat Oliba among other many initiatives.

Virtual reality as learning tool: immersion, cooperation and experience

CEU University professors are in constant training to acquire and expand the technological skills demanded by today’s world. Therefore, they are able to guide students using these powerful tools, motivating them and introducing them into an environment where innovation, research and science are the main actors with a safe bet for social and economic development.

Virtual or mixed reality are versatile tools that will never replace the most traditional ones but rather that will complement them offering teachers and students an empowered way to orient the teaching-learning process. For example, with simulation software students can face very similar situations to those they will be finding in real life. A good example is the use of virtual reality and 3D in the Faculty of Medicine of CEU San Pablo de Madrid which offers students the possibility to analyse and solve case studies that have to do with anatomic structures. And everything with a broad margin of experience and error as there are no real consequences for patients.

In the next few years there will be a need for thousands of IT and communication (TIC) professionals to meet market demands. Among the most demanded we find virtual reality applied also to videogames, fields as varied as architecture, biomedicine, telecommunications or aeronautical industry. Counting with a specialization in immersive technologies is a plus when entering the labour market. CEU Universities already offer a Degree in Virtual Reality in collaboration with Playstation and continue creating synergies with cutting-edge technology companies to update the academic offer and adjust it to companies’ demands to streamline the employability of CEU students.