Yavapai College Leaps into Virtual Reality, the Future of Education

Yavapai College took a giant leap into next-generation learning earlier this month, with its first class taught in a virtual reality space.

Dr. Brandelyn Andres’s ART 201 students journeyed to a museum to analyze the compositional details within Renaissance and modern artworks. They discussed implied lines and biomorphic shapes long enough to make you forget that the museum was digital; the students were still in the classroom; and the entire lesson was conducted on their headsets and in their minds.

“So much of the study of art is interaction,” Dr. Andres said. “We lose so much when we project a slide onto a screen or look in a book. If you can move around it, you can understand the scale.” So, she created a digital gallery on the web. Her students, in virtual reality headsets, entered the gallery through avatars and then identified and discussed the basic design elements of each painting.

The lesson is part of a broad initiative Yavapai College introduced last spring when YC received a grant from Meta to develop Virtual Reality classes. Working with digital education provider VictoryXR, the college is honing an immersive virtual platform where students and teachers use synchronized headsets to learn in digitized environments.

I have a strong belief that virtual and augmented reality is going to change almost every industry, including education. YC plans to be on the cutting edge of that change.

It is an incredible way to learn to interact with material, your classmates and instructors. The technology allows students to learn things they could not in a traditional classroom. Things that are dangerous, like electrical instrumentation; impossible, like magnifying the brush strokes in a painting to analyze the artists’ techniques; counter-productive, like having to set up and use the multitude of tools needed to perform health-related training; or expensive, like the amount of material it takes to practice and master welding. Virtual reality allows us to provide high-quality training in areas while eliminating barriers.

Yavapai College will be launching other VR and AI-assisted learning opportunities, in fields ranging from health care to the skilled trades, across its six campuses and learning centers this fall. QCBN

By Lisa B. Rhine

Lisa B. Rhine, Ph.D., is the president of Yavapai College.

*Pending Higher Learning Commission Approval. This degree is not official and is not enrolling at this time.

In Feb. 2019, Dr. Lisa B. Rhine became the 10th president of Yavapai College, bringing to the institution more than 30 years of leadership experience across a number of leading colleges and universities in Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia. Dr. Rhine assumed this role with a commitment to advance the mission of the college while ensuring access and support to those for whom opportunities may have been historically limited or denied.

Yavapai College offers more than 100 degrees and certificates, student and community services, and cultural events and activities at six locations throughout Yavapai County, including campuses in Prescott and Clarkdale, and centers in Prescott Valley, Chino Valley, Sedona and the Prescott Airport.