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Educational systems are constantly evolving to keep up with the constant stream of technological advances and to ensure that teaching methods are relevant and interesting to a group of students who have grown up in a digital world. Advances in Augmented and Virtual Reality (ARlVR) in particular, enable us to offer learning experiences that would not have previously been available and to offer students the opportunity to explore places that they would not usually be able to go. This paper introduces Scenic Spheres, an ARlVR reality educational tool created using the principles of gamification, via the Unity game development engine. Scenic Spheres will allow students to “travel” to different countries around the world using Google Street View imagery. The students are able to explore these locations, while learning facts and answering questions along the way. Harnessing the capabilities of ARlVR technologies, Scenic Spheres intends to provide an immersive experience for students that will ultimately enhance their learning and engage and motivate them to learn more about the world around them.

3-9% school-aged children in Ireland are estimated to be affected by ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), according to HSE (Health Service Executive). Typical co-morbid conditions include: anxiety disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, depression, sleep problems, epilepsy, learning difficulties, etc. As such, unless early intervention properly takes place, performance of children with ADHD at school tends to be compromised (e.g. leaving school early and substance abuse etc.). The current work presents a preliminary investigation of creating 3D Learning Objects (3DLO) using Augmented Reality (AR), following the IEEE Learning Objects standards, to enhance an established online literacy programme, WordsWorthLearning (WWL). The methodology and experimentation of creating AR 3DLO is proposed, followed by a pilot evaluation, aiming to provide a foundation of a system that can support interactive educational content, service, assessment, and feedback for children with ADHD and their parents and teachers.

Virtual Reality(VR} has long been theorized as a perfect training tool. The success in training airline pilots using flight simulators has demonstrated this be true in one use case. This has logically lead to interest in exploring ways of training other professionals such as Doctors and Veterinarians. This paper takes a different approach in examining the use of VR in summative rather than formative assessment. It reports on how using open source tools, CT scans can be converted into a working 3D model that can be used to assess anatomy students abilities. These students already have individual access to a cadaver which would be considered the gold standard method of Anatomy education. So the research problem is to examine the advantages of summative assessment using VR where currently best practise is merely a multiple choice exam(MCQ).