Scots EdTech firm offers funding boost to Universities’ virtual ambitions

A Glasgow-based Scottish immersive technology company is offering academics and teachers a virtual solution to the problems of remote teaching created by COVID-19 ahead of the new academic year.  

Following on from the launch of its virtual learning platform Edify, Sublime is offering educators the opportunity to co-create and build a limited number of fully-funded virtual educational experiences so they can continue to teach their subjects in a 3D world, remotely. With or without a VR headset.

One of the big issues facing educators since the start of lockdown has been how to replicate the interactive nature of on-campus teaching for students which are so invaluable to the learning experience.

Developed in partnership with the University of Glasgow, Edify helps lecturers create and lead classes in 3D environments from anywhere in the world. Ten prototype virtual learning environments have so far been co-created by academics, providing virtual teaching worlds that allow students to go beyond the lecture theatre. From a 3D model of the heart and a tour of the stomach, to stepping inside a disease diagnostics lab – the platform is enabling learning by doing and by ‘being’ in impossible places.

Open to all disciplines, Sublime is inviting academics to submit their ideas for an engaging and immersive educational experience. Edify will shortlist up to 50 ideas and each entrant will receive a tutorial with University of Glasgow VR & AR academic Dr Neil McDonnell and the Edify development team to further refine the teaching requirements.

Sublime will select the most viable briefs to develop as fully-funded virtual lessons, from an app development fund totalling £100,000, to be delivered on the Edify platform. Sublime will then collaborate with each winner to co-create and build the applications, to be delivered within applicants’ institutions.

Dr Neil McDonnell, Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Research Fellow in Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (Philosophy) at the University’s College of Arts, said:

“Given the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 to physical teaching environments, this is a great opportunity for institutions to develop a new model of teaching, one which complements traditional methods, as blended learning becomes the norm. Using virtual 3D environments in teaching can be extraordinarily powerful, whether those environments are accessed via VR headsets, via Zoom, or on a laptop screen. Edify brings that power to teachers in a practical, accessible way and we’re offering lecturers the chance to have their own virtual lab, classroom, or environment built on this exciting new platform.”

Academics and teachers can submit their ideas by visiting www.edify.ac/fundme