//InstaVR Launches Academic Organization-wide Tier Pricing to Accommodate Distance Learning and Campus Virtual Tour Needs

InstaVR Launches Academic Organization-wide Tier Pricing to Accommodate Distance Learning and Campus Virtual Tour Needs

InstaVR Launches Academic Organization-wide Tier Pricing to Accommodate Distance Learning and Campus Virtual Tour Needs

Universities Can Give All Professors and Students Access to Create and Distribute VR For Distant Learning and Campus Virtual Tour with a Single User Cost.

San Francisco, CA – March 16, 2020 – InstaVR Inc (www.instavr.co), the leading web-based virtual reality (VR) authoring, publishing, and analysis company, today launched organization-wide Academic pricing to give universities a more cost-effective way of utilizing VR across all departments.

InstaVR provides a no-code, drag-and-drop web-based editor that can easily be learned by any professor or student. Over 50,000 organizations include universities such as Stanford University, etc. have created 250,000+ VR experiences for diverse use-cases by using InstaVR. Find more academic use cases from https://www.instavr.co/academic-use-cases. Combined with a 360-degree camera or 3DCG software, faculty or students can create VR apps in minutes that can be distributed via web, mobile app, or head-mounted VR system (Oculus Go, Quest and Rift S).

To accommodate the influx of interest at the university level, and to provide a measure of financial relief, InstaVR is now offering a single price point for University-wide subscriptions.

The normal single per user subscription of InstaVR Pro at $199 USD per month will now be offered for unlimited student and staff access on approved academic email domains. If there are 10,000 students and staff in the university, the cost per user per month is around $0.02 USD.

To get started with the new InstaVR Academic tier, a single user from the approved university email domain needs to sign up and purchase an InstaVR Pro annual subscription. All subsequent users who sign up with that same email domain will automatically be upgraded to the advanced Pro tier. Find approved domains at https://instavr.co/academic-domains. 9,704 domains listed.

“We recognize the challenges of teaching higher education students remotely,” said Daniel H. Haga, CEO and Founder of InstaVR. “Virtual Reality helps create a more educational and immersive experience for students. It’s also a great technology for students to learn to use themselves, as forward-thinking workplaces have already incorporated VR into their daily environments.”

Additionally, given travel restrictions, colleges can utilize their organization-wide InstaVR Academic access to create 360-degree virtual campus tours for prospective students who can no longer physically visit.

“The classroom of the future, driven by immersive Virtual Reality, is becoming a reality much faster. Hopefully our platform and Academic tier pricing helps universities with that transition.”

Get Started Organization-wide License Today

Colleges and universities were some of the earliest adopters of InstaVR — and some of the most innovative current users. The appeal of a fast, easy, no-code VR creation platform for all major headsets is obvious. We enable universities to enable all departments access to creating virtual reality applications.

There are many, many different use cases for InstaVR at colleges and universities. At some, it’s professors making immersive applications to share with students and the community. At others, it’s students themselves creating their own VR presensentations to educate other students. And at still others, VR is being used at an administrative level to train, plan, and even raise money.

We can’t cover all the InstaVR use cases in higher education in one post. If you have some time, it’s worth visiting our InstaVR Interviews page to read the actual interviews with higher education VR practitioners. But for the purpose of educating potential future InstaVR users in education, here are some major examples of clients leveraging InstaVR to create impressive VR applications.

PROFESSORS CREATING VR FOR STUDENTS

Professors creating VR for students is a great way to give students an immersive, memorable educational opportunity. The learning in a VR headset will be “stickier” than if they were distracted by their laptops and mobile phones in a classrom. And the immersion gives an unparalleled ability to transport a student far from the classroom for interactive learning.

Normally, VR would seem inaccessible to professors not in Computer Science or Visual Arts. But with InstaVR, it’s easy and quick to create! The ability to author apps without having to learn to code is a gamechanger.

We’ve received great feedback from Professors that have used VR in the classroom. It’s generally incredibly well-received by students. If you haven’t considered creating a VR app yet for fear of the time or effort it will take, you no longer have that as an excuse!

Top Client Examples:

University of South Wales – One of the leaders in the immersive space among our higher ed clients, this University creates interactive exercises for students to engage in for learning. For instance, they teach crime scene investigation through VR apps they’ve created themselves. Learn More.

University of the West of Scotland – They’re creating a “Virtual University”, enabling students all over the world to learn from VR applications created at the main campus. They’ve also hosted visual artist D.O.M. to do a live art display using Virtual Reality. Learn More.

University of Birmingham, UK – They’re training the next generation of social workers using VR. Immersing students in example client visits helps them become more comfortable, and also provides data points to the professor on where student focus is during the visits. They’ve also released the apps publicly on iTunes & Google Play to extend learning beyond just their classrooms. Learn More.

UNIVERSITIES CREATING VR FOR MARKETING OR THE COMMUNITY

VR from colleges doesn’t have to be just for educational purposes. Many universities are using VR directly to appeal to students — be it virtual campus tours, “Day in the Life” VR videos, or showcasing virtual learning as part of the curriculum. The technology helps make what would traditionally be done via a brochure come alive. The deluge of mail from colleges looking for students can replaced with links to downloadable apps.

Colleges and universities are also developing VR apps in conjunction with the outside community. This helps leverage the intelligence and technical savvy of the universities, but for the good of the greater area. Because of the accessibility of VR, the immersive work at universities can reach hundreds or thousands of end users, making a real impact.

Top Client Examples:

University of Arkansas, Pulaski Technical College – They’re a real innovator in using VR for multiple marketing purposes — virtual college tours, showing off how their culinary school works, winning awards for their VR library tour, etc. Learn More.

Texas State University – Working with the state of Texas, they’ve created VR Ambulance Bus Tour experiences to educate the drivers and technicians who rarely have access to Ambulance Buses, which are only used in extraordinary circumstances like mass casualty events. Great way to bring academia and government + business closer together. Learn More.

STUDENT PRESENTATIONS

Prior to InstaVR, virtual reality creation was mainly housed in the computer science or visual arts departments of universities. This severely limited access to the technology. With InstaVR — plus ubiqitous 360-degree cameras and affordable mobile standalone headsets like Oculus Go — any student in any department can make and distribute VR apps.

We’ve seen some universities put a single InstaVR license on a workstation. Others buy a limited number of licenses for students to share. And we’ve even seen a few universities invest so all students within a classroom have their own accounts.

The approach is really based on how often students will be creating VR and how many students there are. The one commonality is speed — all of our clients can quickly and easily make distribute-ready VR apps without coding. Making virtual reality is even easier than making a web page!

Top Client Examples:

German University in Cairo Architecture students capture the majesty of historical Cairo buildings and present them via VR in headsets like Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR. A great way to help visualize the amazing architectural feats of centuries past in an immersive way. Learn More.

Emporia State University Marketing students help local businesses to uniquely and impressively market their businesses through virtual reality. In the process, the marketing students learn a new discipline (VR creation) that can be used in future careers. Learn More.

2020-03-17T13:35:05+00:00 March 15th, 2020|General|