New Mexico State University’s Global Campus has been hugely successful at attracting students due to its innovative learning technologies, such as virtual reality and microcredentialing courses. And it’s now attracting the attention of Meta Platforms, Inc., best known as the technology company responsible for Facebook and Instagram.
Meta recently announced that it is partnering with 15 universities, including NMSU, to learn more about how immersive technology can best shape the student learning experience. NMSU was chosen because of its ability to remain at the forefront of using technology in the classroom, such as using virtual reality in a criminal forensics course taught by Ida D’Antonio-Hangen, an assistant professor in the NMSU Department of Criminal Justice.
“It’s interesting to me that with us being a land-grant university, we’re doing things that have never been done before,” said Robbie Grant, Metaverse administrator and Microlearning administrator for NMSU Global. “You usually see this being done at bigger schools, but this is kind of unique when it comes to a school our size and at a land-grant institution.”
NMSU’s partnership with Meta will help provide more virtual reality headsets to students. So far, the number of headsets available to classes are limited to due costs, but Grant said NMSU Global is exploring ways to help make a larger number of headsets available.
NMSU is partnering with Los Lunas Public Schools to train teachers and administrators in virtual reality in the classroom, as well as how to create online professional development training and using microcredentialing courses within the district’s schools. Microcredentialing courses consist of a series of classes leading to a digital certification that can be added to resumes.
“We’re trying to spread the cool aspects about virtual reality and how it’s being used in education, not just here at NMSU, but by supporting the state as a whole and being recognized as one of the leaders in this space,” said Andrew Sedillo, director of microcredentials instructional design for NMSU Global. “We’re ahead of the game.”
Sedillo said NMSU has already created a “digital twin,” or a virtual model of the entire Las Cruces campus, that is useful in emergency and space planning. There are also plans to create an augmented reality/virtual reality center on campus so that faculty can better explore how they can implement the technology in their classes.
D’Antonio-Hangen’s online criminal forensics class used virtual reality headsets to explore simulated crime scenes instead of re-creating a crime scene in a physical classroom.
“In my face-to-face classes, there’s hands-on practicums where students learn the do’s and don’ts of collecting evidence and processing crime scenes, such as how to pick up fingerprints, collect blood samples, and work in teams to process a mock crime scene,” said D’Antonio-Hangen, a former FBI agent. “In an online class, this is difficult to replicate. When I first saw the use of VR used in Meta University, I thought we have to have this here at NMSU.”
D’Antonio-Hangen introduced the use of virtual reality to online students in her mini-mester forensics course this fall by providing them with VR headsets. The students were able to explore a realistic crime scene in virtual reality and learned more about examining the condition of deceased crime scene victims, among other investigative techniques.
“I was able to mimic what I was teaching in the classroom, with students working together as a team to process the crime scene in VR,” D’Antonio-Hangen said.
Because of D’Antonio-Hangen’s success in the classroom, there are plans to implement the VR technology in a second criminal justice course, as well as a languages and linguistics course to allow students to practice languages with each other online.
In order to help other educators learn more about how to use virtual reality in their classroom, NMSU’s Microlearning program is offering an XR Storytelling microcredential that will provide learners with the fundamentals of storytelling in virtual reality, including emotionality, scripting for interaction, best practices for creating and filming, different types of interactions, and more.
Grant, Sedillo and D’Antonio-Hangen will also present with Meta on how higher educators and administrators nationwide can use virtual reality in their schools.
“I’m really excited to see how we can work together to share this with the rest of New Mexico,” Sedillo said.
Grant said he sees additional opportunities campuswide to implement virtual reality, such as in kinesiology, where students are currently using computerized tables to examine the human body.
“This is a supplemental tool that can provide an immersive experience in class,” Grant said. “The sky is the limit when it comes to what you can actually do.”
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PHOTO CAPTION: New Mexico State University criminal justice assistant professor Ida D’Antonio-Hangen is interviewed by a crew from Meta Platforms, Inc., which recently partnered with NMSU to learn more about how immersive technology can help students learn. (NMSU photo by Josh Bachman)
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Woman speaking to a camera crew
To view on YouTube, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQl4tAIYhlo