About the project
A learning platform
Learning and training with XR using cutting-edge technologies for education
Digital transformation
Why XR4ED?
The European EdTech sector is playing an increasingly important role in driving forward digital transformation in Europe covering all education, training sectors. According to estimates, the sector saw a 15% increase in investments in 2021 and global investments are expected to reach over $87 billion in the upcoming decade.
Notwithstanding, the sector is heavily fragmented across the European Union with many small players and few companies playing a global role.
On the other hand, the European XR industry has evolved and maintained a leading role globally in software and content production. The use of XR could expand the range of activities through which students can gain hands-on experience, enabling them to go beyond abstract knowledge and supporting skills-based teaching and learning.
However, currently, developing XR applications for education requires specialised knowledge and strong XR development skills, demanding a process that takes a lot of effort, time, and money.
As such, there is a pressing need for bringing together the EdTech and the XR communities and resources, with the goal of overcoming fragmentation issues and encouraging the acceleration of innovation for personalised, innovative, efficient, and inclusive learning using XR.
EdTech and XR communities
What is XR4ED vision and approach
XR4ED brings together the EdTech and XR communities to establish an European reference platform on learning and training with XR that will provide a central access point to existing solutions and contribute to a leading position for Europe in cutting-edge technologies for education.
XR4ED will pursue its implementation through a set of SMART objectives split into three main categories:
Scientific & Innovation objectives
Technological Objectives
Business Objectives
Scientific & Innovation
Enhancing XR technologies for education
This objective focuses on enhancing existing XR technologies (TRL4-5) and taking them to a TRL7 to enable developers to create innovative XR applications for teaching, learning, and training purposes through a cloud-based open-access DevOps environment. Interoperable XR components will be developed to expand stakeholders’ capabilities to discover, mix and re-use different components and create new learning solutions with XR.
Objectives
Technological
Implementing an innovative sustainable on-demand education platform, by mobilising the EdTech and XR EU communities
Design, create and maintain the XR4ED platform as a central access point to existing XR solutions and contributing to a leading position for Europe in cutting-edge technologies for education while ensuring the European value of privacy, ethics, and inclusiveness.
XR4ED platform aims to:
• Facilitate the cooperation and sharing of XR knowledge between members of EU with the use of a marketspace, which consists of an offer and demand space allowing offers/requests for XR4ED-related services;
• Promote European digital educational XR solutions by sharing them to existing catalogues and repositories. XR solutions catalogue will be open to European players to submit and promote their ready-to-market XR solutions for learning, training, and education;
• Provide access for the education sector stakeholders in the field of XR for education using open standards such as OpenXR and WebXR;
Formulating privacy and ethics standards for the XR EU community
A Working Group will be formed to respect ethics on privacy, ethics, and inclusiveness of XR EdTech, to create guidelines and submit them to an Ethics Observatory common space. XR4ED social partners will design a human-centred approach and create an ecosystem of trust which will be compliant with EU rules to protect users’ fundamental rights.
Objectives
Business
Boosting the use of the XR4ED platform by reaching out to potential user groups.
XR4ED is intended to be used by stakeholders in education, training, and learning (teachers, students, parents and school administration, members of the EU EdTech and XR community). Dissemination tasks will be planned for raising awareness, promote the services provided by the XR4ED platform. Updates about the latest technologies and project activities will be posted on blogs and newsletters
Delivering a pan-European multi-sided platform for education, training, and learning, validated through tendering and a set of representative long-lasting demonstrations.
XR4ED aspires to become one of the leading platforms for XR systems for education, learning and training in the EU. Cascade funding will be employed through a tending process to create user-friendly systems related to 1) virtual field trips, 2) content creation and exploration (STEM, history, etc.), 3) awareness of climate changes and biodiversity challenges, 4) training of young professionals and upskilling, 5) distance and blended learning, 6) accessibility and inclusion.
Delivering a sustainable ever-growing ecosystem of collaborating organisations in diverse domains, fully utilising the XR4ED platform and renovating XR in education-related sectors.
XR4ED success will be tightly connected to various user groups through an intensive incubation program, which is essential for the expansion of multiplication of the platform value, to guarantee new products and learning services. Dissemination and marketing activities will showcase and demonstrate the business impact and maximise ROI targeting at an open innovation ecosystem. Open-source software and open APIs will be generated, while community engagement of data scientists, developers, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders will be also pursued through 1) long-lasting hackathon competitions, webinars, and hands-on training workshops, 2) online and offline channels, 3) attending relevant industrial (and academic events) to generate market demand, 4) articles in the education community and scientific papers.