XR4ED: An Extended Reality Platform for Education

Area of Science:

• Educational Technology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Immersive Learning Environments

Background:

• Extended Reality (XR) offers significant educational benefits but faces adoption barriers due to educator unfamiliarity.
• The XR4ED project addresses the need for accessible XR content creation tools for educators.
• Current educational technology often lacks intuitive interfaces for developing immersive learning experiences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present the architecture and objectives of the EU-funded XR4ED project.
• To enable educators to create XR teaching experiences without programming or 3-D modeling skills.
• To explore the role of avatars in collaborative and social XR for education.

Main Methods:

• Development of a user-friendly platform for XR content creation.
• Implementation of a marketplace for educational assets (3-D models, avatars, scenarios).
• Integration of graphical user interfaces for authoring and communication channels for collaborative VR.

Main Results:

• Initial results showcase a functional marketplace for populating XR educational content.
• An intelligent augmented reality assistant facilitates communication between non-player characters and learners.
• Self-avatars are demonstrated to provide nonverbal communication in collaborative virtual reality settings.

Conclusions:

• The XR4ED platform lowers the barrier for educators to integrate XR into their teaching.
• Avatars play a crucial role in enhancing social and collaborative aspects of XR learning.
• The project facilitates the creation of engaging and accessible immersive educational experiences.