Nottingham: VR classroom aims to boost engineering skills

Students can use headsets in the classroom but also take some away for further study

A new virtual reality classroom to boost the teaching of engineering and design has been opened in Nottingham.

The University of Nottingham uses 40 VR headsets to allow students to explore and create products digitally.

The headsets and hand controllers allow students to deconstruct simulated engines and run experiments in environments that replicate reality.

It also lets lecturers share ideas with classes in a more detailed way, the university said.

Digital learning director Simon Harrison says the technology dramatically cuts build times

In addition to the class-based technology, 90 wireless headsets are available to loan to students, which can be used in any location so that they can continue their studies outside the classroom.

Digital learning director Simon Harrison said: "For us in engineering we want to leverage the software to enable them to be better designers.

"To enable them to make less mistakes, design more quickly and we want to give them [the students] time back so instead of spending ten hours on a piece of work they can do it in four hours."

Fifth year student Hannah Snowden, says the VR experience resembles "real life". "It's not limited by physical real-world constraints, you're just able to do so much more," she said.

Another aim of the classroom is to allow real time collaboration across international campuses, as Nottingham's China-based Ningbo campus has its own VR lab, so that students from across the world can work together in labs or in design-based exercises.