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The Center for Discovery of Children's Talents "EurekUm" of Vyatka State University needs no introduction: during its existence, it has gained popularity and gained a high reputation among schoolchildren of the region and their parents. Here, in "EurekUm", real professionals work, implementing courses in the most popular areas.
Among the most successful was the VR and AR Developer program, created by a large team of experienced educators, methodologists and experts in the field of virtual and augmented reality. The graduates of the course, which was first launched a year ago, were Kirov schoolchildren aged 12-15. Recently, a video has appeared on the Web, combining the results of the guys' work on the computer games "Rock Climber" and "Siege of the Castle". The VR application created on their basis is a completely complete arcade game: you need to climb a steep cliff and capture a castle!
The gaming industry is developing rapidly before everyone's eyes! The success of the great authors of cult video games, such as John Carmack, Hideo Kojima, David Yaffe, leaves no one indifferent either children or adults. Parents of today support their children's desire to learn the skills needed to develop computer games. The market for educational services in the field of creating game content existed in Kirov even before our course, but very few people were ready to teach children how to develop VR / AR applications in early 2019.
It is no coincidence that the course "VR and AR Developer" appeared within the walls of VyatSU. We were among the first to see the HTC Vive virtual reality headset in action. In our city, we were the first to open a studio for the development of virtual and augmented reality applications "VirtoLёt". The experience gained in the development of VR / AR projects in the interests of a real customer instilled in us confidence that we are capable of more, including the creation of educational products demanded by the market - Vitaly Lisovsky, Dean of the Faculty of Technology, Engineering and Design, spoke about the background of the course "VR and AR Developer".
Creation of additional sections of the discipline on computer graphics in VR / AR for engineers and designers studying in higher education programs; the emergence of additional education courses; the opening of a new educational program of higher education in the framework of the "Design" direction - the pursuit of these goals largely determined the vector of development of the PTID of the Polytechnic Institute of VyatSU.
Everything goes according to plan. We have graduated several undergraduate students who have defended their final qualification theses in VR / AR, launched a course for children and opened an educational program for higher education. Everything that we implemented had the same context: it was a teamwork of a team of students on a project, like in a real video game development studio. In my opinion, this is what makes all our educational products unique.
"We do not teach the main components of VR / AR technology separately. In most indie studios, developers specialize in one thing, but they know a little about everything. So our students are able to create their own small VR / AR project inside and out. Large studios working on AAA projects have a tighter division of labor. If our students choose this professional area for themselves, it will be easier for them to develop those skills in which, as their practice has shown, they are more comfortable", - expressed confidence Vitaly Lisovsky. He also noted:
Our course was designed for one year, during which the students were to get a product result. It is impossible to learn everything in such a short time, but the main thing is that the acquired skills are enough for the children to independently master the subtleties of this technology and create more complex projects, both individually and as part of a team. Now we do not lose touch with our students and hope to see them in a few years among our students.
Development of this course is very important for me as dean. Moreover, I am sure that the coexistence of the course "VR and AR Developer" in "EurekUm" and the educational program of higher education "Design of Virtual Reality" at VyatSU can give a synergical effect in the form of joint projects, mentoring by students, exchange of practices.
This fall, EurekUm has again given a start to teaching children about VR / AR development: for this, new, well-equipped classrooms have been prepared. Unfortunately, recently the classes had to, once again, be conducted in an online format. Let's hope that the forced transition to remote lessons will not become an obstacle for schoolchildren to the fascinating virtual world - VyatSU specialists will act as excellent guides in it!
Translated by Artemy Sizov
