TRANSFORMING UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION IN THE SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES WITH VIRTUAL REALITY: THE CASE AT MOREHOUSE COLLEGE (ATLANTA, GA, USA)

Virtual reality (VR) is one of the major contemporary technologies being implemented in teaching today, with emerging examples that hint at how it could play a role in the future of education. The completely immersive nature of VR has changed the way people interact with digital information, including data, knowledge, and alternative scenarios. The many potential benefits of VR in teaching are only beginning to transpire. Morehouse College is a private, historically Black, men’s liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia (USA). In addition, as one of the leading Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs), Morehouse currently stands ahead of schools like Stanford and Harvard as the top VR spatial learning campus in the United States. Students (and instructors) use an Oculus Quest 2 VR headset, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Platform, to access a digital twin of Morehouse’s campus. When Morehouse students enter the VR world, the first thing they experience is the college’s quad (Century Campus) precisely as it appears in real life. From this entry point, students enter immersive classes and interact with subjects in ways that only VR makes possible. The Morehouse digital campus and learning objects were created by AR/VR content provider VictoryXR. The first three classes that were taught on the Morehouse VR campus were Men’s Health (Biology 105), World History (History 112), and Advanced Inorganic Chemistry (Chemistry 421). Literature was represented in this cohort by way of specialized supplemental units that focused on Black life, history, and culture. Blacks in Wonderland (English 122), a general education and first year experience course, along with additional courses, are in the latter stages of VR course development, further expanding VR’s integration and implementation within Morehouse’s curriculum. Although the benefits of VR have been demonstrated in educational settings, it is still largely regarded as a gaming/ entertainment or training tool, rather than a pedagogical approach that can be adopted in higher education for improved student learning. As this study demonstrates, instructors using VR can anticipate better engagement with students through the adoption of the 3D visualization made possible by immersive VR. The majority of respondents to student surveys indicated that the use of VR in courses contributed positively to engagement, and that VR was very useful in conveying concepts. Examples include expanding a human heart in VR and stepping inside of it to reinforce learning of the heart’s structure and function; beaming up to space to configure atoms in molecules and understand molecular structure; having more than a front row seat to historical events as students were immersed in world wars and battles; and exploring VR environments inspired by Afrofuturism in a study of science fiction, art, history, and fantasy. Virtual reality is transforming the way we learn and teach. VR allows educators to overcome some resource and financial limitations to not only conduct learning activities that are difficult to implement, but also to enhance our capacity to meet student learning outcomes while improving student engagement. Future studies underway are continuing to explore and evaluate the functionality and effectiveness of VR learning.