Starting Monday, Merced College students will be able to disgnose the illness of an alien dinosaur, or even hunt for a giant pearl inside a cavernous underground maze.
While that may sound like the plot of a late night B-movie on the SyFy channel, it’s actually an immersive learning tool that will transform how students engage with science and solve problems.
Merced College officials are celebrating the launch of the Dreamscape Learn Lab, a $1.7 million virtual reality center that transports students to different worlds and experiences just by putting on a high-tech headset.
Think of it like a futuristic View-Master that comes with high fidelity sound effects, a vibrating seat – and even the occasional light spray of water to mimic a natural mist.
Students enrolled in biology classes will begin using the lab with the start of the fall semester on Aug. 12. Officials plan to eventually use the technology to teach chemistry and art history, along with other topics.
Garrick Grace, dean of innovation at Merced College, said the technology will also be able to transport students to real-world locations like the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Roman Colleseum, the San Diego Zoo –or even The White House – without ever having to leave campus.
Plus, the technology will allow a biology teacher to be able to teach class from inside a virtual human cell. “So you’re able to, as a teacher, point out things within that cell. It’s a whole new level of techology,” Grace said.
The lab was developed in partnership with VR company Dreamscape Learn and in collaboration with Arizona State University.
Chris Huff, senior vice president of academic partnerships for Dreamscape Learn, said the project came to fruition after he met Merced College President Chris Vitelli at an event in Southern California.
Huff said the goal is to create a strong connection between the students and the virtual reality content, keeping them engaged and motivated to tackle tough topics. “Part of it is to take students where they can’t otherwise be,” Huff said.
“We can take people to the moon, to the bottom of the ocean, forward and backward in time, (and) inside a human cell. But at the same time we are also trying to get them to care so much about the mission that they are on or the outcomes they are involved in creating, that they work really hard to get there.”
College officials said the lab is the first brick-and-mortar virtual reality learning facility in the California Community College system to include a Dreamscape Learn classroom plus a free-roam pod experience – a room where users wear sensors on their hands and feet that track their movements.
“Nationwide, dropout rates of students who enter a STEM field are about 50%,” Grace said. “So that’s really what this is trying to target, increased engagement. If students are more engaged, they are more likely to stay throughout the semester, hence move on to another STEM class. “
The college had a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday with local political officials and others. Plus, Tony Thurmond, California’s superintendent of public instruction, visited the campus Wednesday to get a firsthand look at the new facility.
“Merced College is committed to being one of the most innovative community colleges in the nation, and to providing equitable educational opportunities for all of our students,” Vitelli said in a news release.
“Through this partnership with Dreamscape Learn, we are bringing a unique, one-of-a-kind interactive and dynamic new learning experience to students that will transform how we approach teaching and learning moving forward.”