Publish at June 06 2017 Updated May 18 2023
The virtual marketplace is booming and highly competitive.
Despite its popularity, what are the limitations; advantages and disadvantages related to this market, as well as to the use of a digital learning environment?
Is it succeeding in keeping pace with the fast-paced market?
The rise of the virtual marketplace
The economy is being shaken up by the demand for technological development. Virtual reality, introduced in 1962, preceded augmented reality. The latter had its debut in 1994 with the creation of a visual headset of virtual information. Its recent rise in popularity of around 30% has been greatly influenced by Snapchat Lenses and social networks.
The possibilities for using these virtual environments are so vast, they are applicable in all areas of the economy (Futura Tech, 2016; Pirotte, 2016; Journal de Montreal, 2017).
While virtual reality places the user in a situation where he or she is stimulated in a real scene and in real time, augmented reality is a real image to which data can be superimposed. Amazing effects can be created by combining them, so that vivid images appear in 3D (Futura Tech, 2016; Pirotte, 2016).
The virtual marketplace serving consumers
The virtual marketplace is growing rapidly and driving the constant development of new products to support and accompany it. It reaches among others:
Is the audience satisfied?
The multiple opportunities created by the marketplace, however, appear to be producing less satisfying results than expectations suggested.
Consumers are cautious about the fledgling virtual headset market, whose performance and quality are not yet mature, in addition to being priced too high (Cavazza, 2017; Pirotte, 2016; Louis, 2017).
These prices are justified by the fact that the market is not yet fully developed.
These prices are justified by the costs of producing video content, which entails a lot of constraints (travel, equipment, and permissions to film) and requires a great deal of skill in order to create a richer, more immersive experience for users.
New skills would be conducive to the power of reinventing ways to communicate, capture attention, and differentiate from competitors (Cavazza, 2017).
Learning through the virtual environment
Virtual and augmented realities allow for the creation of an artificial environment whose quality depends on the richness of perceptions; emotions and narrative, as well as its ability to interact with that environment and its credibility by the user (Mellet D'Huart, 2003).
By succeeding in capturing the attention to 92%, the virtual environment makes it possible to increase the retention of the information to a rate approaching 90%. This gives it significant learning capabilities (Cloutier-Gravel, 2016).
The introduction of a pedagogical agent to multimedia, through pedagogical features and hyperlinks, helps to stimulate the user's motivation to integrate conceptual data; schemas and the solution to a diagnosis submitted to them. F
based in a multi-sensory, multi-motor environment and in a spatio-temporal continuity, virtual learning can reproduce all senses, apart from taste and smell. However, the latter sense can be recreated by certain gases released at specific times (Mellet D'Huart, 2003).
Benefits and ilimitations of virtual learning
The virtual training environment allows for the development of new possibilities for action that are often unattainable with other media and in controlled environments. It has a real impact on the motivation needed for learning because it focuses on providing a realistic and challenging experience.
The professional work recreated by this environment can be very distant from the real work, because some transformations are invisible, therefore they can hardly succeed in reproducing representations and mental models that favor the integration of learning.
Transfer of learning can be difficult to achieve, because the learner has acquired this learning in an unconstrained environment, whereas his return to the real world is littered with constraints that he must take into account. His knowledge is not always transposable as he has learned it, with the inherent risks and the presence of others around him (Mellet D'Huart, 2003).
In addition to the various difficulties to be solved, learning in a virtual environment is only favorable if the transfer of learning is based on knowledge that is identical to the learning and if it is accompanied by appropriate learner-friendly pedagogical support.
The virtual environment is revolutionizing the world of training. Although both virtual and augmented realities can be used equally, with the goal of creating serious game-based training devices, the former is often chosen due to its relative affordability.
The virtual environment is revolutionizing the world of training.
Save for some technical; ergonomic and sociological caveats, the virtual training environment offers enormous potential for learning, as it can adapt; provide necessary supports for feedback and motivation; in addition to offering a diversity of learning contexts (Dugas, 2016; Pirotte, 2016; Cavazza, 2017).
Sources:
National Bank of Canada. Increasing sales with virtual reality (May 26, 2017).
http://www.idees.banquenationale.ca/ventes-realite-virtuelle/
Cavazza, F. Virtual reality will be the media of the 21st century. Yes, but when? (January 11, 2017).
http://www.fredcavazza.net/2017/01/11/la-realite-virtuelle-sera-le-media-du-xxie-siecle-oui-mais-quand/
Cavazza, F. A small audience but big investments (January 11, 2017).
http://www.fredcavazza.net/2017/01/11/la-realite-virtuelle-sera-le-media-du-xxie-siecle-oui-mais-quand/
Snap Chat - Lenses - https://www.snap.com/en-US/news/post/introducing-new-world-lenses/
Cloutier-Gravel, J. Augmented reality and knowledge transfer through brain stimulation (May 13, 2016) - Harold Dumur
http://www.ellicom.com/blogue/evenements/la-realite-virtuelle-et-le-transfert-de-connaissances-par-la-stimulation-du-cerveau/
Dugas, J. Augmented reality in a learning context (July 26, 2016).
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01349195/document
Futura Tech. Virtual reality and augmented reality: what's the difference (April 2016).
http://www.futura-sciences.com/tech/questions-reponses/multimedia-realite-virtuelle-realite-augmentee-difference-1962/
The Journal of Montreal. Augmented reality makes a breakthrough in the U.S., thanks to social networks (May 25, 2017).
http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2017/05/22/la-realite-augmentee-fait-une-percee-aux-etats-unis-grace-aux-reseaux-sociaux
Louis. J-P. Virtual reality headset shipments to triple in 2017 (June 1, 2017).
http://www.lesechos.fr/tech-medias/hightech/030363706511-les-livraisons-de-casques-de-realite-virtuelle-devraient-tripler-en-2017-2091218.php
Mellet D'Huart, D. Virtual reality: a medium for learning (January 1, 2003).
http://www.hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/edutice-00000489/document
Pirotte, J. - What are the differences between augmented, virtual and mixed reality? (April 15, 2016).
http://www.realite-virtuelle.com/difference-realite-augmentee-virtuelle
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