St. Vrain Valley Schools district will introduce Avantis’ immersive learning services to their 33,000 students.
Avantis will be rolling out its Eduverse products to Colarado-based school district, St. Vrain Valley Schools.
In a company first, the partnership will see all 60 schools in the district provided with access to Eduverse’s library of immersive VR and AR services.
The company has confirmed that, due to its cross-platform compatibility, even schools and teachers who do not currently own VR headsets will be able to take advantage of Eduverse’s full suite of solutions via laptops, Chromebooks, tablets, and/or phones.
Eric Pierce, the district’s Director of IT Services and Support, discussed the impact that this new partnership will have on the learning experiences of students and teachers:
St. Vrain Valley Schools has been using Avantis’ ClassVR headsets since 2018. We have the headsets at 21 of our schools right now and love the rich library of content available to those students.
“Additionally, with this district-wide Eduverse license, the content that’s available in ClassVR can also be accessed on devices that students already have, like iPads, which is exciting for us. We’re a 1:1 district and having this curated library of experiences available for all students on all devices is very valuable and a win for our students.”
With the integration of the new VR solution scheduled for next semester, Eduverse has already been added to the district’s ClassLink platform. This will allow teachers to access the content with a single sign-on password, enabling a simple, frictionless process for new users.
The ease with which students and teachers can access and navigate the company’s immersive content and VR experiences is a crucial aspect of Avantis’ vision for the product, as Chief Executive Officer, Huw Williams, explains:
For schools that want the full immersive experience, they can use ClassVR. If schools only have ClassVR for some classrooms, but not others, they can use Eduverse to access our immersive content on any web-enabled device, including laptops, Chromebooks and tablets, inside or outside of the classroom.
So, let’s take a closer look at the features the students and teachers of St. Vrain Valley Schools district will soon be enjoying.
Eduverse Learning Platform
In short, the UK-based firm offers schools a Metaverse learning solution, which allows students and teachers to interact in virtual reality (VR) classrooms.
Students can access educational content in Eduverse learning spaces within a secure and controlled environment. While teachers using the platform can employ immersive visualizations to help students grasp academic concepts and training, including special education and how to remain active in the classroom.
It is the potential of these immersive experiences in subjects like science and social studies that most interest and excite Eric Pierce:
We can virtually take students to other countries or have them explore the surface of Mars. We’re looking forward to bringing those unique experiences to all our schools.
The platform also accommodates Avantis Education’s purpose-built headset and Google Expeditions kit, tailored for classroom use.
Avantis Making Moves
While the latest partnership with St. Vrain Valley Schools is the first example of the company winning a district-wide contract, late last year Avantis also struck a deal with Saint Louis Public Schools (SLPS) district to integrate its ClassVR service into 17 education institutions.
Funded by the ESSER federal scheme – which, according to Avantis, the company qualifies for due to its track record of providing student support – the initiative will provide 17 schools with “thousands” of AR and VR learning content pieces from Avantis’ ClassVR service.
ClassVR offers a wide range of subject-specific content accessible through all-in-one AR/VR headsets. Designed to meet K-12 school expectations, the service includes hardware, software, and training, and has reached over 1 million students in approximately 100,000 classrooms worldwide.
For the 2023-24 school year, ClassVR supports over 400 lessons aligned with US State Standards in science, social studies, and English language arts – providing teachers with immersive tools to enhance traditional teaching methods.
Quelle:
