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ETEC_V 565S S_66A 2025SS Critical Learning Task # 2: Critical Analysis Through Augmented Reality

Exploring Immersive Learning Experience Through VanVR APP

Sean Jeon

Updated 2025.06.16
Sumitted 2025.06.15

Design Story: Why We Built VanVR

How VanVR Is Used: Applications, Benefits, and Challenges

Telling Stories Through Space and Experience

Future Smart glasses with AI

Ethics and Access

References

As an Educational Product Manager at HIVE, University of British Columbia (UBC), I have the opportunity to help design and lead the development of tools that shape the future of learning. One of our key projects is the VanVR App, a platform that uses immersive technology to support anatomy education through web, virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), and augmented reality (AR) modes (in development). The app allows students to explore 3D-scanned donated human boby in a hands-on, interactive way—enhancing both understanding and memory.

➡️ VanVR APP Web Version link

⚠️ Content Warning: The site contains high-resolution digital scans of real donated human bodies. It is intended strictly for educational purposes in anatomy learning. Viewer discretion is advised.

For this CLT#2, I will explore how these technologies work in educational settings. It will also reflect on how they can be improved and what role they might play in the future of teaching and learning. Through real examples and research, we’ll look at the strengths, challenges, and possibilities of using immersive learning tools like VanVR in both classroom and remote learning environments.

Design Story: Why We Built VanVR

VanVR was created to solve two key problems in medical education: limited access to donated human bodies and the difficulty students face when trying to understand 3D anatomy from 2D images. In-person labs are time-limited and can feel rushed. Our goal was to build a tool that lets students review real 3D-scanned human bodies anytime, anywhere. The primary users are medical students who need more flexible, repeated access to anatomical specimens. VanVR supports web, VR, and future AR/MR platforms to help make anatomy learning more accessible, immersive, and self-paced.

The Gross Anatomy lab at UBCO

How VanVR Is Used: Applications, Benefits, and Challenges

Each version of VanVR is designed to meet different learning needs and learning environments. These distinctions reflect broader trends in immersive learning technologies across education and professional training contexts (Mahajan & Kinge, 2023; Saml et al., 2024)

Web version

This is the most accessible option. Anyone with a browser can explore high-quality 3D scans of real donated bodies. It’s perfect for reviewing content from home, especially for students without access to expensive devices.

Benefits:

- Works on most laptops or desktops
- Easy to access anytime, anywhere
- Great for review and remote learners
Challenges:
- Limited immersion—no spatial depth
- Mouse-based interaction can feel flat

Played a key role during the COVID-19 lockdown, when students couldn’t attend in-person anatomy labs

VR version

This offers a fully immersive experience. Students can walk around, scale up/down, and interact with digital scanned donated human body in 3D space. It’s ideal for active learning, but some students experience motion sickness or drop in motivation over time.

Benefits:
- Deep focus and engagement
- Freedom to scale, rotate, and view donated body in detail
- Helps with spatial understanding and memory
Challenges:
- Some students feel dizzy or tired after use
- Equipment is expensive and requires setup
- Development cost is still high
- Motivation can drop after repeated use
- Isolated from real world interaction (single player interaction)

MR version

The MR version is still under development. So far, we’ve tested Passthrough mode using VR headsets, allowing students to see the real world while viewing anatomy models. This setup helps them interact with other students in the same physical space and develop a stronger sense of spatial understanding.

Current Benefits:
- Students stay aware of their surroundings
- Enables group work and live discussion in shared space
- Supports spatial reasoning by blending digital visuals with the real world
Planned Features:
- Integration with 3D-printed models using SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping)
- Multiplayer interaction, allowing students to work together in MR
- Remote collaboration between different locations
Challenges:
- Requires advanced calibration between physical and digital models (looking for AI integration)
- Still in early testing; user experience and accuracy are being refined

AR Version

The AR version is currently in the planning stage. For the purpose of this assignment, I created a prototype using Adobe Aero as a proof of concept to compare VanVR across platforms.

Benefits:
- Learning in real-world spaces
- Portable, flexible, and AI-enhanced
- higher accessibility than VR headset
Challenges:
- Accuracy and usability still being tested
- Privacy concerns with smart glass data collection

To experience VanVR AR prototype v 0.1.0 click here or scan the QR code. Then scan the brain illustration.

⚠️ Content Warning: The site contains high-resolution digital scans of real donated human bodies. It is intended strictly for educational purposes in anatomy learning. Viewer discretion is advised. Also be respectful to the body donor.

Telling Stories Through Space and Experience

At UBC, anatomy classes usually begin with a long lecture in the morning, followed by hands-on lab sessions with real donated bodies. While these cadavers are essential for learning, they don’t come with colour or labels. Many students find it difficult to recognize what they’re looking at, especially after just one explanation.

That’s where VanVR APP makes a difference. After they ecperience the complexity of real human body at the lab, students can use VR to explore the human body in full 3D, with colour-coded systems and annotations. They can scale up/down, rotate, and even walk around donated body parts to understand how everything connects. When they re-enter the lab afterward, they already have a mental map of what they’re about to see—making the experience less confusing and more meaningful (Samal & Rajimol, 2024).

This approach reflects a powerful learning method called spatial storytelling. Instead of memorizing from textbooks, students learn by exploring. With this immersive experience, they can step inside an isolate a body system, building knowledge through movement and visual interaction (Jang et al., 2021).

It’s important to note that immersive technologies like VanVR APP are most effective as supplementary tools—especially when there’s a real-life subject involved, such as a donated body in the anatomy lab. The timing of introducing this technology matters. If used at the right stage in the student’s learning journey—such as during the lab sessions—it can enhance preparation, build confidence, and reinforce learning. But if used too early or too late, the experience may feel disconnected from their immediate educational needs.

Future Smart glasses with AI

I believe the most promising future platform will be smart AR/MR glasses powered by AI. This technology will combine the strengths of both AR and MR, offering full hand interaction, spatial awareness, and AI guidance—all in a device that is easy to wear. Compared to current VR headsets, smart glasses are likely to cause less motion sickness and will be more practical for daily use in classrooms and practical settings. With continued development, this hands-free, intelligent AR system could become a standard tool for personalized, immersive learning.

However, this future also brings important privacy and ethical concerns. Smart glasses and AI systems often collect sensitive data, such as eye tracking, gestures, location, and voice input. Without clear consent and strong protections, this information could be misused or cause harm. Educational institutions will need to develop responsible policies that protect student privacy, ensure data security, and promote ethical use of AI in learning environments.

Ethics and Access

As immersive technologies become more common in education, it’s essential to consider who can access them and how they are used responsibly. High-end platforms like VR and MR often require special hardware and physical space, which not all students can afford or access equally. This creates a digital divide between learners who have access to these tools and those who don’t.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, the VanVR Web version became a crucial solution. Its browser-based design allowed students to continue anatomy learning remotely without any specialized equipment. Looking ahead, our goal with VanVR AR is to build on this inclusivity by developing for mobile devices and future smart glasses, making immersive learning more portable and affordable.

At the same time, the ethical design of these tools must go beyond privacy. It involves making sure that learning experiences are safe, supportive, and adaptable for different users. As researchers like Rehman, Kim, and Hwang (2025) note, emerging technologies must be built with both technical innovation and educational responsibility in mind. For VanVR, that means continuing to prioritize access, equity, and thoughtful integration as we design the next generation of anatomy learning tools.

The development of VanVR APP has shown how immersive technologies can meaningfully enhance anatomy education—especially when thoughtfully aligned with learners’ needs. From the accessible web version to immersive VR, collaborative MR, and forward-looking AR with AI, each stage of technologies reflects a commitment to making complex learning more engaging, spatial, and personal.

Yet, this journey also reminds us that technology is not a replacement for hands-on experience. It is a supplementary tool, most powerful when introduced at the right moment in a student’s learning path. Our design process continues to be shaped by real feedback, ethical considerations, and the belief that immersive learning should be both inclusive and intentional.

As we look to the future, smart glasses and AI-powered AR open new doors for mobile, real-time learning. But to truly serve education, these innovations must be balanced with privacy protection, accessibility, and a deep respect for the students who use them.

💡 A valuable area for future study is exploring how AR can support fully remote learners—those without access to physical labs or in-person instruction. If we shift our primary user group to remote students, AR has the potential to become a core platform, not just a supplement. It could deliver contextual, spatial, and personalized learning experiences directly into students’ homes, classrooms, or clinical placements—bridging the gap between theory and real-world practice in entirely new ways.

References

Samal, A., & Rajimol, K. (2024). Application of Extended Reality (XR) technologies, benefits and challenges faced -A study w.r.t. Yelahanka sub-districts of Bengaluru Urban district. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379051111

Jang, J., Ko, Y., Shin, W. S., & Han, I. (2021). Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality for Learning: An Examination Using an Extended Technology Acceptance Model. IEEE Access. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.304870

Rehman, S. U., Kim, I., & Hwang, K. (2025). Advancing BIM and game engine integration in the AEC industry: Innovations, challenges, and future directions. Journal of Computational Design and Engineering, 12(4), 26-54. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcde/qwaf030

Mahajan, A. G., & Kinge, K. (2023). Unveilling the Application, Advantage and Limitation of AR, VR & MR in Immersive Learning Technologies in AEC (Chapter 10). Contemporary Perspective on Science, Technology and Research, 137-154.

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