Classrooms go virtual Davenport is the first university in Michigan to enhance online learning with virtual reality
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magine walking into class — you see your classmates, your professor, and today’s lesson displayed on the TV screen. You take your seat and chat with the person next to you until the class begins. When the professor asks a question, you raise your hand and the professor calls on you to answer. A discussion ensues.
In March, the admissions team hosted its first virtual graduate fair. While the university will continue to look for ways to expand Davenport’s use of the platform, the focus will remain on creating greater access to education and improved outcomes for all types of online students. As Brian Miller, dean of Davenport’s global campus, explains it, “Adopting VirBELA not only allows us to offer our online community a heightened sense of togetherness, it simultaneously gamifies the online classroom experience to benefit individuals of all learning and working styles.”
Sounds like a typical class, right? What if we told you that you were walking across a virtual Learn something new campus and into a virtual Gam·i·fy / noun / the process of adding classroom as an avatar? Davenport’s health games or game-like elements to something information management (such as a task) to encourage engagement students experienced this new way of attending class last spring, when they became the first to take an official Davenport is the first university in Michigan course in VirBELA — the university’s and one of the first in the nation to adopt virtual reality platform. VirBELA. “We have a 20-year history of offering bachelor and graduate programs “Students, faculty, and staff have all online,” said Dr. Richard J. Pappas, university enjoyed the adaptability of VirBELA and president. “We are leaders in this space and the real-life interactions it replicates,” will continue to look for ways to expand said Jeff Wiggerman, Davenport’s director our use of new technologies to create more of instructional technology and delivery effective online experiences for our students systems. “Even after leaving the software, and professors.” the virtual space persists just as it would in a physical setting — providing them with a sense of place and community.” Over the past year, Davenport introduced this new sense of cyberspace to select students while teams across the university sought new ways to utilize the technology.
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Get a glimpse of the virtual campus at bit.ly/virbela
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