Improving the interactivity of chemistry in junior and senior secondary schools in Ghana through virtual reality

Abstract

Virtual Reality has been around since the 1960’s but it was a very expensive technology until Oculus and Google released the Oculus Rift and the Google Cardboard VR headset in 2015 respectively. These releases have made virtual reality more affordable and there has been an increase in apps and materials to develop content. The Virtual Chemistry Lab is a mobile application in VR that aims to allow to students simulate experiments in a virtual lab via the Google Cardboard. The focus of the project is to improve the interactivity of chemistry in Senior Secondary Schools in Ghana. The current Integrated Science and Elective Chemistry syllabus assigns a lot of time on practical sessions. However, this has not been the case in some Ghanaian schools due to many challenges such as the lack of infrastructure and resources in many rural parts of Ghana. This paper outlines the various tools and processes used in building and testing the Virtual Chemistry Lab. It also outlines the challenges encountered during the development of the application and how they were solved to achieve the desired outcomes. It will discuss the feedback received from the users who were interviewed and tested the application. Finally, this paper will evaluates the application and discuss the future of virtual reality in education in Ghana.

Description

Applied project submitted to the Department of Computer Science, Ashesi University College, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree, in April 2016

Keywords

virtual reality, Virtual Chemistry Lab, Ghana, senior high school

Citation

DOI