We are so pleased to have received the OLIS grant to expand our virtual reality offerings across campus and beyond.
The Bryant University Library will create an enhanced and portable VR lab to engage users who are part of the Bryant community and beyond. Providing an opportunity for secondary and undergraduate students to participate in VR experiences related to their areas of study allows for a unique opportunity to build knowledge, skills, and empathy. Not only do these experiences help to foster engagement with discipline specific content but they also allow for connecting critical thinking, digital and information literacy, and empathy building. The ability to travel to other places to learn about cultures, visit important sites or environments, or hear stories directly from those involved is not something everyone is lucky enough to have. These experiences, however, are paramount to provide insight into how others live and to provide an almost first-person entry point to expose individuals to things they would otherwise never have the chance to see. There are many tools and apps available in the VR landscape that can help to level the playing field for those who do not have the means to travel or have first-person experiences that others have.
The library staff is currently operationalizing our Meta Quest 2 VR headsets and working with ArborXR to have them classroom ready for deployment.
Our first experience with them will be in the Economics Pre-College Summer Camp to be held in August with Bryant Economics faculty. We are very excited to get this project off the ground and cannot wait for all that these students will get to learn and experience with a bit of virtual reality enhancement!
This project was made possible in part by a grant from the RI Office of Library & Information Services using funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
