TSU and Rubius will sell abroad the designer of online courses

TOMSK, Apr 16 – RIA Tomsk. Foreign universities become interested in the platform for online courses creating using virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technologies developed by Tomsk State University (TSU) and the Rubius company. With it any teacher will easily assemble a course with elements of VR/AR. Such "designers" were previously used only for scientific research.

Earlier it was reported that in the summer of 2018, TSU and the Rubius company started the implementation of the "Virtual University 4.0" digital project – an open IT platform UniVRsity for the development of educational applications and services using VR / AR technologies. The introduction of the first module in the real educational process is scheduled for 2019-2020.

Within humanitarian's scope of abilities

The presentation of the UniVRsity platform to the wide educational community was held at the recently completed Moscow International Educational Salon. The interest of Russian universities in it was to be expected – in our country, until now, no IT solution was offered which would allow collecting online courses using virtual and augmented reality technologies.

However, the development of TSU and Rubius turned out to be unique throughout the world: as the technical director of Rubius Anton Kudinov said, such "designers" were previously used only for scientific research (the most famous world analogue – is Labster's virtual laboratories), at most – for training in corporate centers (for example, Volkswagen has this technology).

"In the world educational community there is a very big interest in all innovations in this area. For example, the adviser for education of the ambassador of the Turkish Republic approached our stand at the salon in Moscow. One of the leaders of the University of London asked to keep him informed about the news - they intend to become partners or consumers of this platform", – says the project manager, the director of the TSU Center of Computer and Data Science Alexander Zamyatin.

In his opinion, the main, fundamental feature of UniVRsity, which will allow to "capture" the general public, – is the simplicity of the tool:

"Thanks to it any teacher with the help of the script designer will be able to realize his educational product with VR / AR elements. It doesn’t matter whether he is a humanitarian or a techie. Special competencies are not needed, not only in the field of these technologies, but also in general in the field of IT".

For example, the "pilot" on the platform was made by Nikolai Saynakov, a teacher of life safety, the associate professor of the Faculty of Historical and Political Studies of TSU, the creator of the online course "History and survival technologies". Also using the platform has already developed a VR-lesson "Study of the structure of the skin".

In step with MIT

"Students in the learning process will not need any special equipment – the ordinary laptop or the tablet will be required. Although, of course, the full potential of the platform will be revealed when using glasses, virtual or augmented reality helmets, which can also be used", – adds Anton Kudinov.

In the future, the platform will become a commercial product – a special company, which is now creating by TSU and Rubius on the basis of Skolkovo, will be engaged in its sale.

Alexander Zamyatin says that the platform is interesting not only to the network of the university community, but also to business structures engaged in education. So, there are already requests from corporate training centers for Russian oil and gas companies.

For the university, this, among other things, is part of a big story – the creation at TSU the center of competence in the field of virtual and augmented reality technologies. In September 2019, the magistracy opens, where they will prepare profile specialists. Zamyatin emphasizes that this is a unique experience not only in Russia:

"A few months ago, I was at a meeting in Brussels, where European universities were discussing VR / AR education. Giants such as MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) or Technical University of Munich, have just started profile training, and most leading European universities only discussing the launch of such programs. So TSU – is one of the leaders in this direction".