From interactive teaching to immersive learning: Higher Education 4.0 via 360-degree videos and virtual reality in Malaysia

Abstract

Higher Education 4.0 deals with the spread of technologies and espouses the notion that today’s learners need to be trained and not merely taught by rote and memorisation drills. The present is a period whereby data and information must be made accessible and open 24/7 so that learners can learn about how to find knowledge rather than to wait to be spoon-fed from their instructor’s textbooks. Higher Education 4.0 is contingent upon the concept of ‘immersive learning’ to afford learners with an educational atmosphere that is exceedingly interactive at the physical and virtual levels. Hence, immersive learning experiences could replicate possible scenarios that learners will face in real life and impart specific techniques or skills based on their different academic syllabuses. Employing immersive learning experiences that incorporate 360-degree real life videos and VR technologies to remote teach advanced communication skills to technical and vocational students at several public universities in Malaysia, this research paper highlights the fact that novel learning technologies and immersive learning experiences are not merely fads of Higher Education 4.0. Rather, they are glimpses of tomorrow’s world, based on quantitative and qualitative data collected from end-users (Malaysian university students) of a learning innovation initiative called ‘ELSA 360°-Videos’.