Imagine the possibilities of applying extended reality technology to higher education. Instead of sitting through a lecture or reading from a textbook about art history, students could be whisked away to the ancient Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul.
Now that UNLV has opened the Dreamscape Learn Center, that scenario has become reality. The virtual reality space will serve as the hub for the university’s extended reality technologies.
“Many of our students, along with myself, have never been to Turkey and may never visit in our lives. But through this technology, we’re able to learn about the history and architecture of the Hagia Sophia almost as if we were there,” says Aundrea Frahm, director of immersive learning at UNLV.
Other programs include an 18-module Alien Zoo Biology application, which complements foundational life sciences courses, and 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.
UNLV hosted a ribbon cutting on September 22 for the center. It’s part of a wider effort by UNLV to emerge as a frontrunner in the immersive learning movement.
Efforts to open the Dreamscape Learn Center began in spring 2023, when university officials sought to explore how they can combine technology with learning opportunities to increase academic performance. In July 2024, UNLV announced it would be entering a partnership with the education technology company Dreamscape Learn to bring its virtual reality software to Las Vegas.
Virtual reality (VR) is one part of the extended reality, or “XR” umbrella, which inclues augmented reality and mixed reality, explains Frahm. It allows users to create and enter virtual spaces through the use of technology such as specialized headsets with goggles and earphones, and body trackers for hands or feet.
Frahm, an art professor with more than 10 years of experience, previously opened the virtual reality and augmented reality Innovation Studio at Southern Utah University. She was hired last October to lead the inaugural team tasked with bringing immersive technology to UNLV and expanding opportunities for alternative forms of learning.
“Today’s students grew up with cellphones and tablets in their hands. 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 says.
The 4,000-square-foot facility, tucked in the back of the second floor within UNLV’s Lied Library, has five rooms. A spacious welcome center with a dedicated student staffer greets those who walk in.
In a 16-seat classroom, each seat is equipped with HTC Vive virtual reality goggles that can run the aforementioned programs. In the back is a flexible collaboration space and a free-roam pod, where students can put on the VR goggles and sensors for their hands and feet to get a four-dimensional experience. Students can feel the floor shake under them or a cool breeze through their hair as they play through 15-minute games such as Curse of the Lost Pearl, an Indiana Jones-style adventure game.
The center also includes a content development center used by the six-student team that Frahm says has been working to create more educational programs for UNLV to use. Through that, students will build skills in areas like coding and three-dimensional asset creation.
Since construction was completed in February, Frahm and her team have had more than 175 students and faculty try the VR technologies. This fall, six faculty members will integrate the Dreamscape Learn Center into their classroom curriculum.
With the center officially open at UNLV, the university has become the second institution in the nation—after Arizona State—to establish a facility for VR technology. Dreamscape Learn CEO Josh Reibel says research of the ASU student body showed that students who enrolled in introductory biology courses that used the technology were almost two times more likely to receive A grades on their laboratory assignments.
It’s all to prepare for the ever-evolving future on the horizon—one where future hospitality majors could be using virtual hotel lobbies to simulate real-life situations on the job, says UNLV acting executive vice president and provost Kate Hausbeck Korgan.
“The future is here, and it is born out of the computer era and the emergence of virtual reality. It’s at this intersection that we need Dreamscape, our tremendous partners in this endeavor, and the promise of digital immersive learning,” she said at the ribbon cutting.
“These are not just demonstrations of technology. … They’re portals to possibilities for our students, for how they imagine their own future, and how we prepare them to be successful in the high tech world that they’ll encounter when they leave our university.”
Click HERE to subscribe for free to the Weekly Fix, the digital edition of Las Vegas Weekly! Stay up to date with the latest on Las Vegas concerts, shows, restaurants, bars and more, sent directly to your inbox!
