Virtual reality takes students into classroom of the future

Students in Yoo-Kyoung Seock’s First-Year Odyssey class used virtual reality to enjoy an immersive learning experience about the world of fashion.

Students in the course taught by Seock, a professor in the department of textiles, merchandising and interiors, and graduate assistant Jeongah Shin, watched short videos about the history of fashion, haute couture and ready-to-wear fashion shows while wearing VR headsets, providing the freshmen a glimpse of the classroom of the future.

“New technologies like VR and Augmented Reality (AR) have a great potential to change our lives and is now reshaping many industries,” Seock said. “These technologies will also change the educational landscape. Despite the growing popularity, the adoption of VR technology for teaching in college classrooms is still in the primitive stage. Students need to gain more opportunities to access and explore innovative technologies in the college classroom.”

Wearing VR headsets, students in the “Inside the World of Fashion” course downloaded the VRPlayer app on their own smartphones and watched the videos in a 3-D virtual setting. Afterward, students shared their VR experiences with the class alongside discussion topics on fashion.

A few of their comments are below:

“Especially with fashion, it was cool to see technology incorporated into the experience. I have never used VR before, but I have always wanted to, so it was fun to be able to do it for the first time.”

“I enjoyed using the VR headset! I felt like it was a fun take on a normal activity that allowed it to feel more interactive and engaging.”

“Watching the fashion show in the VR gave a completely different experience than watching it on the screen. This was something that I felt could make people feel closer to the fashion world. Watching the video through VR made me feel like Vogue’s Editor, Anna Wintour, sitting at a fashion show.”

“I loved being able to look around the entire venue and see multiple of the models at once. I enjoyed this VR experience more because of the 360-degree view we got of the runways.”

“Jeongah and I created VR experiences to make the learning process more engaging,” Seock said. “VR also can provide a fun learning experience in the classroom, making them feel like they are inside the virtual world.”