Closed Amid COVID-19 Pandemic, Schools In Poland Used Half-Life Alyx For Remote Teaching

One of the biggest challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic is how to teach students so that both teachers and students are safe and sound. However, teachers in Poland have discovered a new method to spread knowledge to their students - a method that seems to only appear in science-fiction movies: They have used VR, or to get more specific, Valve’s latest VR game - Half-Life Alyx.

A recently-posted YouTube video showing how Polish teachers teach their students via a VR game has drawn huge attention from the netizens. Like a typical gaming Livestream, it started counting down until a teacher appeared on the screen. Right after that, the lecture began via Half-Life Alyx.

Accordingly, Polish teachers used chalk to provide their lecture on a board in Half-Life Alyx. Valve’s game developers have never thought that their VR game will be applied in the educational field amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Via this game, these teachers have taught a variety of lessons including English classes in which they figured out different kinds of stuff in the room and spell their names on the board.

The same things also happened to other lessons. Teachers could use chalk to write on the board or the game’s window to give a lecture. Although this method is simple, it shows high effectiveness in spreading knowledge without endangering teachers and students. It has been applied since March when the pandemic has become more severe and when Half-Life Alyx was officially released. There are 6 recorded lessons that last two hours each and were uploaded on Twitch, Facebook, and YouTube.

In an interview with UploadVR, VR technology may be applied by schools in Poland in the future because both teachers and students fall in love with this method. In addition to its advancement, many wonder how long it will take VR lessons to become a new standard for students in the whole world. It’s hard to imagine that a game developed for entertainment is applied, especially in some difficult fields such as teaching.

Half-Life Alyx is the first official Half-Life developed by Valve since Half-Life 2; Episode 2 was released 12 years ago, in 2007. The story of this game is a combination of the two previous games including Half-Life 1 and Half-Life 2, and gamers follow the lead female character Alyx and her father, Eli, in a secret fight against mysterious aliens and the Combine Empire to save the future of humans.

This game allows gamers to return the City 17 along with aliens’ constructions and buildings that are designed in the eye-catching VR environment. After its release on March 23, many game review sites have called Half-Life Alyx the blockbuster in the recent century, with a rating of 9/10.