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The floor rumbles beneath your feet. A gust of “wind” blows across your face. You reach for a lit torch that you know is not really there … except it is. Then, as the walls of the Indiana Jones-like cave close in on you, you reach for a lever that opens a passageway — a lever that, like the torch, isn’t really there … except it is.

Welcome to Dreamscape Learn, an innovative 4,000-square-foot space on the second floor of the Lied Library that was designed to position ���ӽ紫ý at the forefront of the future of higher learning.

It’s a future that will see students and faculty supplement traditional learning methods — textbooks, classroom lectures, group projects — with mindblowing modern technology. It’s the shiniest, most visible part of a much bigger effort: ���ӽ紫ý’s immersive learning initiatives.

The overarching idea: Give today’s students a new platform to engage with coursework in a way that is most familiar to them — that platform being extended reality (or XR), an umbrella term that encompasses virtual (VR), augmented (AR), and mixed (MR) reality.

“Today’s students grew up with cellphones and tablets in their hands,” says Aundrea Frahm, ���ӽ紫ý’s inaugural director of immersive learning. “And as Generation Alpha rises, many of them will have been exposed to screens from just a few months old. This is a cultural shift in how people grow up and engage with the world — students are used to learning, exploring, and engaging through a screen that teaches, shows, and speaks to them.

Frahm is bringing the curriculum to life in Dreamscape Learn, which is highlighted by a 16-seat immersive classroom. Each desk and chair has virtual reality headsets and built-in haptics that allow students to feel things like movement and wind.

Currently, the classroom offers three learning applications:

• Alien Zoo Biology, which features 18 modules and a curriculum that complements foundational life sciences courses.
• A VR experience where a professor can take all students to 12 different locations — from the Colorado River to the Oval Office to the moon.
• And an art history-related experience, with students virtually visiting Hagia Sophia, an ancient mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, that was once a church cathedral and museum. 

In addition to teaching students about the complicated religious history of a nearly 1,500-year-old shrine, the latter application offers a deep dive into the structure’s fascinating architectural changes.

“Many of our students, along with myself, have never been to Turkey and may never visit in our lives,” Frahm says. “But through this technology, we’re able to learn about the history and architecture of the Hagia Sophia almost as if we were there.”

An Experience for the Senses

A few steps from the Dreamscape Learn classroom is a space that’s been dubbed the “free-roam pod." At first glance, it resembles a slightly oversized steel boxing ring — at least until strapping on a VR headset and the accompanying feet and hand trackers. Once small groups gear up — and nine supercharged computers on the other side of the wall power up — the mesmerizing virtual adventure begins.

Currently, the free-roam pod has two applications: Alien Zoo (think Jurassic Park) and The Curse of the Lost Pearl (think Indiana Jones). Both last roughly 15 minutes and offer a full sensorial 4D experience.

It is every bit the kind of virtual thrill ride one might encounter at Disneyland — but with an educational component. And not just for students in such tech-focused majors as engineering, computer science, and entertainment technology and design.

Just ask Myles Lum. During the fall semester, the assistant professor-in-residence is incorporating Alien Zoo into his Honors 100 English class. The theme of that class? Rhetoric.

“I’m sure a lot of people are thinking, ‘Rhetoric and virtual reality? How in the world are these two things connected?’” Lum says. “But I actually believe rhetoric relates to all fields, in that all fields need to figure out how to best communicate to varying audiences.

“I’m envisioning this experience just like studying any text, movie, song, political debate on TV, family dinner conversation — literally any other form of communication students witness in their day-to-day lives — and applying it within this virtual reality context. My hope is it’s a new, fun way for students to learn about rhetoric.”

Marta Soligo shares the same hope for her Tourism and Society class. This semester, the assistant professor in the College of Hospitality is guiding students through the art history application in the Dreamscape Learn classroom. Soligo believes that by virtually immersing themselves in the history of Hagia Sophia, her students will better grasp the concept of heritage — and more specifically, heritage that’s complex because it’s shared by multiple entities.

“The class is rooted in the sociology of tourism,” says Soligo, a sociologist who also serves as the director of tourism research for the ���ӽ紫ý Tourism Development, Diversification, and Resiliency Initiative (���ӽ紫ý OED). “Among the sociological cases of contested heritage, the Hagia Sophia is a prominent example, due to its complex history as a Christian church, a mosque, and a museum.

“Now through Dreamscape, which will supplement classroom discussions and theories, I have a way to show students that what they learn in the classroom actually exists out there in the world.”

But Wait, There’s More

���ӽ紫ý’s investment in immersive learning extends well beyond its partnership with Dreamscape Learn. While the Dreamscape facility serves as a high-profile hub, the university is integrating extended reality across campus in ways that directly support teaching, research, and student success.

���ӽ紫ý is creating flexible immersive learning spaces throughout campus that are designed to support a wide range of disciplines and teaching styles. These environments — which Frahm refers to as “agnostic VR classrooms” — give faculty access to a variety of extended reality tools and content, allowing them to tailor experiences directly to their curriculum.

The applications range from career readiness tools that help students practice interviews and presentation skills, to advanced programs in such fields as anatomy, where learners can virtually examine the human body in detail. Immersive technology also enables engineering students to view and interact with 3D Building Information Models (BIMs) in collaborative settings.

“Electrical engineering leaders working in the commercial industry are actually using this VR technology right now,” Frahm says. “General contractors will have everyone put on headsets and ‘walk’ the job in BIM and take notes before the build for that section commences.”

This connection to real-world practice underscores why ���ӽ紫ý is going all-in on immersive learning: Industries across the spectrum are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence and extended reality. Frahm notes that arming students with these tools now positions them to better compete and thrive in tomorrow’s workforce.

“The goal is to help prepare our students for the time to come when they will be able to be more competitive [in the job market] because they have had this experience,” Frahm says.

As an R1 research institution, ���ӽ紫ý also sees immersive learning as a driver of innovation. But the field still faces challenges — namely, XR-ready educational software remains limited and is often expensive.

“Many of our faculty across every department know exactly how they want to implement this technology into their classrooms and how it will benefit students,” Frahm says. “Unfortunately, the software hasn’t yet been created.”

And that’s where ���ӽ紫ý’s own students come in.

“One of the long-term goals of our immersive learning initiatives is to establish a content development team, which we’re currently building this semester with six student workers,” Frahm says. “The hope is for our students to be able to create some content that faculty are interested in featuring within their curriculum.”

Not Just Play Time

Immersive learning can sometimes be misunderstood as little more than gaming with headsets. Frahm is well aware of this and is committed to breaking down that misconception by inviting faculty, staff, and students to put on a headset and experience the educational impact firsthand.

“My hope is that [skeptics] are able to come experience what we offer and see that, ‘Wow, this can be utilized for educational purposes,’” she says. “For me, it’s about getting them in the headset for the first time; misperceptions change after that.”

That shift in perspective is echoed by faculty like Lum, who himself admits to initially being a bit of a skeptic.

“Dreamscape was actually my first experience with virtual reality,” he says. “I thought you just put on some goggles and everything will be somewhat 3D — like a movie — and that’ll be it. Then you put the headset on, start walking around and are able to feel things around you, feel ‘wind’ blowing in your face, and you really start to have the sensory experience.

“I was like, ‘Oh, we can work with this. This is a lot of fun. It can be a new, fun way for students [to study] rhetoric in an English class.’”

Of course, fun is only part of the story. Because at their core, ���ӽ紫ý’s immersive learning initiatives are about more than headsets and new technology — they’re  about transforming education into an active, collaborative, and inclusive space of discovery. By weaving extended reality, simulation, and interactive storytelling into curricula, the university is preparing students not just to learn, but to lead. 

Indeed, the commitment is clear: Create opportunities where students, faculty, and community partners can co-create knowledge, push the boundaries of innovation, and step confidently into a future where immersive learning is not a novelty, but a defining strength of higher education.

As for the concern that extended reality will someday nudge traditional instruction out of the classroom door, Frahm insists that is not — and will not — be the case at ���ӽ紫ý.

“Nothing beats a teacher at the front of the class offering instruction in a real-life setting. Just like in the medical field, the chance to study a real cadaver offers insights you can’t get any other way.

“So VR is not here to replace all the ways that teachers have taught and students have learned over the years; it’s here to add on — like another tool in the academic toolbox.”