3D learning worlds: VR+Web = scalability

Just in the US, nearly 17 millions students don’t understand math or what they read. Sadly this is the base for more complex careers, however, we believe we can help those with a STEM background.

Simulation can help reduce the gap between theory and practice, giving the students more tools to prepare them for the future.

We offer an online collaborative 3D world designed for learning. This works directly on almost any modern web browser and VR device, for immersive experiences. Students and teachers are able to talk and interact in this environment, without requiring them to be in the same place or from the same kind of device. 

Scaling our solution means giving access to cutting edge interactive content for education to thousands of students in the short term and at the same time improving the use of VR in education.

Just in the US, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2019 over 50% of twelfth-graders could not reach proficiency at both mathematics and reading assessments. Even more, 30% could not even reach a basic level. The same organization tells us there were 56.4 million projected students to attend schools in 2020.

So if we extrapolate this, we could say that roughly 17 million students in the US simply don´t understand maths nor what they read. That is quite a number. 

Of course, here we are only talking about math and reading, but with the years we include physics, chemistry, biology and within time it gets even more complex with concepts such as economics, engineering, medicine, etc.

 Eventually, these students are introduced to the labour market and unfortunately many of them are unable to close the gap for proficiency.
The lack of practical knowledge in certain work areas often generates great risks and losses to companies, also in this global context, where virtual education is central but is limited by different factors.  Students have few opportunities to get practical experience since laboratories are expensive and pandemic restrictions limit the access to physical resources.

We are empowering the new education technologies, specially the VR, to educate without risk or danger and with virtual live experiments. We work to make a new way of virtual and in person education that is safe and accessible from multiple types of devices. Yoy proposes an immersive experience to educate in virtual environments. Which gives thousands of people access to remote, high quality and interactive educative experiences. 

We will create online interactive rooms, allowing teachers to work with several students in a 3D interactive environment. In these rooms, teachers will have interactive 3D elements and audiovisual material to work with the students. Here everyone can talk using his microphone, emulating a visit to a real place, but in a virtual world. 

Example: ¿How does an engine work? We can show students a transparent car, with its engine and parts. They can see every component working and even the car can run in front of them. The teacher explains the crankshaft, pistons and everything about the engine having the pieces right there in front of the eyes of his audience and they can even interact with each part.

Our solution serves primary and secondary learners from any school that has any of these two resources: online classes or VR devices. Learning tools used by schools such as videconferences or videos are not enough to capture the attention of their students. Complex topics are usually learned in laboratories and live experiences, however this is not something that is available to every school. Creating online virtual worlds can improve education by adding a new dimension that is in the middle ground between a video call and a live practical experience. 

Allowing students to connect to an online platform using an avatar, can help them to overcome anxiety and zoom fatigue. As they are represented by a “virtual character”. On the other hand, for those institutions who already are doing great with online content and have good infrastructure, we can facilitate the adoption of virtual reality. The technology that surely almost every student will use in a couple of years for an effective learning experience. An interesting research from PwC showed a 4X faster train compared to classroom, 4X more focused than e-learning  and 3.75X more emotionally connected to content than classroom learners (source: PWC VR Soft Skills Training Efficacy Study, 2020).

Initially we will focus on STEM topics, adding 3D interactive elements to facilitate knowledge. We need more resources to serve our students online, but also, new ways to explore in the traditional classrooms. We can convert a classroom into any place using virtual reality devices: teachers and students can connect to special 3D tematic worlds, where they can have conversations and experience interactive learning experiences.

We want to create a tool that serves both: presential and online educational experiences. For that reason, our platform allows access to rich content from almost any modern web browser, but also to use modern virtual reality headsets (allowing walking, using hands and having conversations). 

Finally, something that characterizes our product is the level of specialization that we show in each virtual room, this is only possible because our team works directly with professors and students, who provide us with their experience and contribute to the creation of virtual spaces, so these spaces are created to meet the specific needs of the users.

We will provide the perfect tool to give students and teachers the opportunity to interact in novel ways with educative 3D content in a collaborative way, using at the same time all the available resources. We can connect people without requiring specialized equipment.

We will provide teachers with support to adapt their pedagogical methods to the new technologies. In this global context ravaged by the pandemic, maintaining a good education and effective learning is a challenge. Our focus is to reduce the gap that remote education presupposes and at the same time create content for the future adoption of VR.

The Centinela Division of Antofagasta Minerals is the first customer who believed in this new solution. We created them an environment they currently use it for their maintenance team, creating meetings in different cities at one and planning

We want to generate and provide a quality virtual education, with immersive experiences in VR, which involve different cognitive receptors, in depth, the use of the senses, spatial and corporal memory. It is a step in the use of technology for education and training, which aims to create professionals with better tools and knowledge to reduce risks and increase student productivity.

The technology we are using is very recent and for the first time you can use just a modern web browser to connect people from different devices into a common 3D environment, without requiring them to install anything. Someone using virtual reality, other a PC and other a smartphone. All of them exploring the same content, talking and seeing each other. This is something unique and a great opportunity to improve education.

As we have years of experience developing simulators and educative experiences, we can use very byte of content to deliver value to teachers and students. The solution not only relies on programming skills, but also in 3D and artistic abilities. All this mixed with pedagogy can create great results.

Today we are using this technology with a Copper Mine in Chile. We replicated some of their essential facilities such as the SAG Mill. We have around ten users of the system.They use the system to prepare and explain some procedures before going to the real SAG Mill. The project has been in execution for some months and they have a beta version of the system.

We serve thousands of students with other solutions of our startup (for example: electrical & PLC web simulators), having the experience of working with educational institutions.

We have zero users of this system in particular, since it is a new approach to help students.

We expect to serve at least 10,000 students in our first year.

We expect to serve at least 1 million students in five years.

We believe we can have a deep impact and create a product that can reach many students, since our products today are used in more than 5 different countries and one of our products sold more than 3,000 licences the past year. We are already connected with a variety of educational institutions, having the right channel to start distributing  this solution.

We will measure the impact of our solution with the following indicators:

1.- number of users: to know how much impact we have.

2.- time spend on the platform: to know if users are really engaged.

3.- academic scores before and after: to know if the we are helping them to learn.

4.- satisfaction polls: to know if they are satisfied.

Web developer full-time.

3D artist full-time.

VR expert part-time.

Project manager part-time.

Sales manager full-time

Marketing expert part-time

Teacher part-time

Testing team part-time 

We are a team of more than 30 highly skilled professionals with different backgrounds and strong software development experience. Not only that, we started as a VR company and we are almost 8 years old, which means we are a senior company for this type of technology. Of course, other team members have business backgrounds which can help us put this product on the market.

Besides the above, we have already successfully implemented this solution with AMSA, one of the biggest mining companies in the world.

Also, we have a proven record of successful taylor made projects with the educational industry, therefore, considering all the information we can say we have a well prepared team to meet the requirements for such a challenge.

We have launched several products for education and work with dozens of institutions. Thousands of students use our growing catalog of educational web based simulators such as: PLC Programming, Electrotechnical and electronics, Solar panel installation, Electromyograph, among many others. We have received two awards from Epic Games, one of the most important US videogames companies and we are part of the Nvidia Inception program for startups.

The high quality of our team allows us to work with world known brands, such as Goodyear, Bechtel, Mercedes Benz, among others.

Yoy is an equal employment opportunity employer. All current employees were considered for their capabilities and qualifications. Yoy does not discriminate against on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, or national or ethnic origin, among others.

Yoy is committed to inclusion and diversity having a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives and skills, providing people of all backgrounds a genuine opportunity to thrive in our company. From our 8 full-time leaders of the company 37% percent are women and as a latin country most of our workers are latin american workers.

Accessibility

Regarding our solution, we develop inclusive technology that is accessible to individuals with disabilities. Some of these examples include descriptive audio, voice commands and/or sign languages guides which are available for users that have limited visual/hearing capabilities, with this solving a challenge that most of the times are overlooked.