Peer Review

CoSpaces Edu: Make AR and VR in the classroom

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Reviewed:: Jan 22, 2019 by Teacher Education

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Ratings

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Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

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Overview:: Discover how to use VR and AR for education and engage your students to learn by creating. Runs on mobile, tablet and desktop, including Chromebooks. A basic account is free, but there are limitations including one class and one assignment with 30 seats. The Pro account costs $3.50 per seat per year with unlimited assignments. Users can can easily re-assign seats by removing and replacing students from the seats available in your CoSpaces Edu license plan.
Type of Material:: Development Tool
Recommended Uses:: CoSpaces Edu can be used in-class, individually, in pairs, or in collaborative teams. It can be used as homework (online) and for self-paced study and engagement.
Technical Requirements:: CoSpaces Edu is an interactive 3D graphics application running in the browser, on iOS and Android. To render real time 3D graphics, CoSpaces Edu uses OpenGL ES 2.0 on Android/iOS and WebGL in the browser, allowing GPU accelerated image processing. Additionally, on mobile devices you have the option to go into VR or gyroscope mode to experience your scenes. Your device must have an build-in gyroscope sensor in order to work properly in these modes.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: CoSpaces Edu improves digital literacy skills, enhances creativity and fosters collaboration in the classroom by enabling students and teachers to easily build their own 3D creations, animate them with code and explore them in Virtual or Augmented Reality.
Target Student Population:: Middle School, High School, College General Ed, College Lower Division, Grade School
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: basic computing skills

Content Quality

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Strengths:: The online platform has a variety of building tools and 3D assets that can be placed onto the stage and animated with coding elements that suit everyone from beginners to experts. The CoBlocks coding implementation provides a thorough introduction to the coding world, before moving onto JavaScript or TypeScript, if desired. CoSpaces Edu allows users to create augmented and virtual reality experiences. 360 degree photos taken by users can be imported and used. The site offers sample and adaptable lesson plans in a variety of topics. Tutorials and options for teacher training are part of the package.
Concerns:: None.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

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Strengths:: CoSpaces Edu offers a very engaging way for beginners to start coding, as well as scripting languages for more experienced users. Students can create simulations of physical phenomena and visual abstract scientific concepts in 3D or VR. Students can create stories, inforgraphics, models of scientific principles, and games. CoSpaces Edu can be integrated into the curriculum being taught by having students use coding for augmented and virtual reality experiences. Students could build a CoSpace to demonstrate comprehension of a content topic. CoSpaces can be utilized in any content. This is an option for student-created projects.
Concerns:: None.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

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Strengths:: The CoSpaces Edu site is very organized. There are 45 short video tutorials to support users. Resources for getting started are provided and include a checklist for teachers and a checklist for students, an introductory video for using Cospaces Edu, and a free CoSpaces Edu online course for teacher training. There is a CoSpaces Edu Gallery of adaptable lesson plans (downloadable pdfs) in the areas of STEM & Coding, Social Sciences, Literature & Language, and Makerspaces & Arts. Student certificates, classroom posters, and other printables are available to support teachers. CoSpaces Edu also has a forum for users to share their thoughts and ideas.
Concerns:: None.

Other Issues and Comments:: User should be aware that when loading a CoSpace it may take some time depending upon the user's connection since it needs to load the 3D features and animation elements.
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