Shenandoah University has long been a forward-looking, progressive-minded institution emphasizing ways to create unique educational opportunities for students and the broader public. As museums and historic sites not only across the United States, but globally, explore a frontier filled with various technologies to engage broader audiences about complex historical issues, Shenandoah University is poised to continue its tradition of being on the cutting edge and take advantage of its dynamic history faculty and the Shenandoah Center for Immersive Learning to create a certificate program in history and immersive technology. This certificate will sharpen “information literacy” and “critical thinking” skills of students as they conduct research and interpret it through the technology of immersive learning. This certificate will assist students in synthesizing relevant information from multiple sources and perspectives as they create immersive history productions using the latest developments in this technology.

The  Shenandoah Center for Immersive Learning (SCiL) empowers others to create human-to-human connectivity within virtual and augmented realities, transforming ideas into living experiences through immersive technology. Founded at Shenandoah University, SCIL is a student-run production company driven by a brain trust of industry and academic experts.

18th Century history comes alive through a collaborative VR project that highlights the debates of the Constitutional Convention.

Shenandoah students, professors and the Shenandoah Center for immersive Learning (SCiL) are creating a virtual reality project that will transport participants back in time to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and the debates that took place there among the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Immerse in the “Atmosphere Of Hate,” felt by African-Americans as they engaged in nonviolent protest to challenge segregation by sitting at a whites-only lunch counter in 1960.

This short virtual reality experience applies the technology and expertise of the Shenandoah Center for Immersive Learning (SCIL) to a concept and script crafted by history major John Oross ’19 for his Shenandoah University U.S. history class focusing on the civil rights era.

VR can help with the study of history in many ways but, I feel the most important way it can enhance the study is to give people an emotional connection to a particular event as well as an intellectual connection.” 

John Oross ’19

 

Virtual reality film project of John Brown’s historic trial

The Shenandoah Center for Immersive Learning (SCIL), in coordination with Shenandoah’s McCormick Civil War Institute and the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, re-created John Brown’s historic trial for a virtual reality film project. The virtual reality experience can be viewed at the Shenandoah Valley Civil War Museum. Museum visitors who put on the 360-degree VR headsets find themselves sitting in the courtroom for one of the most momentous trials in American history. Users are fully immersed in the tense environment, surrounded by reporters and a raucous crowd, and have an up-close look at John Brown’s memorable closing remarks. Narration and period imagery tie together the experience and help viewers to understand why this was such a pivotal moment in America’s history and the spark that lit the fuse of the Civil War.

Acquiring workplace skills can be as important as succeeding in traditional academic majors for students seeking employment upon graduation and career success in life. The field of Immersive Technology as a medium for conveying historical knowledge and experiences opens important career opportunities for history students. A Certificate in History and Immersive Technology attached to a diploma or transcript would establish basic credentials important for further education and employment in this field.

Course Requirements

Required Courses:

• ARVR 105 Introduction to Immersive Technologies
• ARVR 230 Video Production in 360
• ARVR 290 AR/VR Lab
  • Note: ARVR 290 must be taken concurrently with History elective.

History Electives:

• HIST 303 American Colonial History
• HIST 304 Middle Period America
• HIST 308 Civil War in Memory & Popular Culture
• HIST 341 Introduction to Public History
• HIST 350 Virginia History
• HIST 395 Topics in History
• HIST 309 Interpreting Civil War Sites
• Note: Choose One.  History 201 or permission of instructor based on knowledge of history research methods and writing is required for history electives.

Shenandoah University works on rolling admissions and accepts applications throughout the year. Applications are reviewed individually and holistically.

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