EDTECH: How have students responded to learning in VR?
MORRIS: Seniors who took advanced inorganic chemistry felt they would have been better chemists if they had this in their freshman year. In this course, you have to be able to visualize molecules and molecular geometry and understand complex chemical reactions. VR helps students visualize the molecular world in a way they haven’t been able to the entire time they’ve been studying chemistry. They get to experience molecules blown up to room size. They were able to do problem-based learning activities. A lot of them want to go into health professions, so they could explore inside a body and look at anatomical structures.
EDTECH: How is VR especially valuable for HBCUs?
MORRIS: As an HBCU, a lot of our pedagogy is based on culturally responsive spaces and making sure our students can identify with content that typically doesn’t feel like it’s for them. We’re creating an engaging space that they want to inhabit and that makes them feel comfortable.
In creating our digital twin of Morehouse, we augmented the space with artifacts from the actual campus. In our hallways, students see African pieces of art and elements of history by African American people who have done amazing things in their fields. We’ve created a world that they’re familiar with, using cutting-edge technology to do it.
READ MORE: How emerging technologies help HBCUs retain students.
EDTECH: How can VR expand inclusion and representation in ways that traditional learning may not?
MORRIS: I teach in the education department now and have taught in the chemistry department for my entire career. In my course about exceptional learners, we talk about differentiating instruction for the differently abled and using technological strategies to make sure teachers create the right accommodations.
Our students will get an opportunity to create, in VR, scenarios that will accommodate learners who have physical disabilities or who are neurodivergent. How do we develop technological tools and solutions to accommodate their needs? How can we create experiences that will instill a sense of belonging? Being mindful of that helps teachers create pathways and be more creative in the types of activities they bring into the space.
EDTECH: How can VR’s versatility help to personalize learning?
MORRIS: I call this offering “opportunistic reality” for our students. Extended reality technologies help them to hope, endure and persist through complex materials and challenging aspects of their disciplines. Being exposed to this technology at this level gives them a vantage point that others may not have, which is critical for young Black men, especially those we serve at Morehouse.