University Students Create Their Own Impressive Apps Using InstaVR

One of the most popular ways for college and university students to learn is through immersive education. VR is proving to be an exceptionally good fit at the university level, as students can create their own 360-degree media applications, both to demonstrate their knowledge and to educate fellow students.

Creating VR is both simple and fast using InstaVR. That’s why German University in Cairo selected our platform for students to create end-of-semester VR projects for courses in the Architecture and Urban Design program.

The unique and memorable approach to showcasing knowledge of historical Cairo architecture was a rousing success. Students could create and distribute their own VR without having to learning coding or specialized software. InstaVR empowered them to focus on what mattered most — using VR to create the most impactful learning environment possible.

InstaVR Selected to Turn 360 Media into Useable & Shareable VR Apps

To say the students in Professor Maha El Gewely’s Architecture and Urban Design program were interested in VR is an understatement. As an end-of-semester project, they sought to host a Hyper Reality Architecture presentation, highlighting the historical architectural grandeur of the local Cairo area in panoramic 3D.

They had the basic technology — a 360-degree camera — necessary to capture the actual buildings themselves. The only problem was how to get their wonderfully captured 360-degree images from cameras into a shareable virtual tour for other students to experience. Simply viewing them on a laptop wouldn’t be a very immersive experience. Plus, how could they actually combine the images to make for one single tour?

Enter InstaVR.

InstaVR Makes Creating VR Apps for University Students Simple

InstaVR has always been very popular among education professionals and students. From marketing/admissions officers creating campus tours to teachers creating virtual field trips to graduate students utilizing InstaVR for research purposes. The basis for the high interest level has been the intersection of the value of VR with the ease-of-use of our web-based platform.

The students in Professor Gewely’s class needed a simple, intuitive platform for executing their VR plans. InstaVR allowed them to easily upload their media, add Navigation to create a cohesive walking tour, and then publish across platforms simply, including Google Cardboard and more sophisticated head-mounted displays.

The result was an incredible, immersive journey through the architecture of Historical Cairo. Created quickly and easily, and appreciated by all who got a chance to experience it. The students were able to focus on what mattered most — creating interesting and informative immersive tours — rather than having to learn a new software to showcase their application

Three Main Benefits of Using InstaVR at the College/University Level 

• Easy to learn drag-and-drop interface; students and teachers can start creating VR apps immediately
• Ability to add scene-to-scene navigation and augment with informative hotspots
• Flexibility to publish across multiple platforms with a single click each

All students, faculty, and technology staff are empowered to create VR from day one. German University in Cairo students were able to author and publish their final VR projects in a fraction of the time it would have taken them to learn to code. And being web-based, the students could collaborate together without having to be in the same location.

InstaVR Makes VR Simple at Higher Education levels

There are many use cases for VR in the educational space. The students at German University Cairo leveraged one of the best — educational virtual tours that can be shared widely.

Rather than settling for a more traditional approach, or spending a long time learning a complicated new VR software program, the students leveraged InstaVR’s cloud-based architecture to create amazing virtual reality. Both the students creating the tours and the students experiencing them got a memorable window into the educational power of virtual reality.

Any university considering adding VR to their curriculum would be smart to follow German University in Cairo’s lead. They recognized a department that could benefit from InstaVR, and the students fully embraced the technology. VR doesn’t have to be complicated for universities and colleges. Deploying InstaVR is simple.

InstaVR recognizes that colleges and universities may not have the same budgeting approach as corporations. As such, we’ve created special Educational Licensing packages to ensure you can incorporate VR in the classroom.

If you have any questions, kindly sign up free of charge and contact our sales team. (Click here for free membership registration.)

“InstaVR is just a great and easy to learn tool. We have used InstaVR in our ‘Historical Cairo Goes VR’ project, combining small 360 tours in Historical buildings to make a walk through Fatimid Cairo. Using InstaVR made our project just way better.“

Professor Maha El Gewely
Instructor, Architecture and Urban Design Program at German University in Cairo

Photos courtesy of GUC -> Hyper Reality Course -> Students