VictoryXR brings virtual worlds to the classroom

DAVENPORT — An Iowa company is helping students “converse” with historical figures and “visit” historic sites without leaving their homes.

“Let’s say you’re reading ‘A Tale of Alabama,'” Steve Grubbs said. “You want to talk to Harper Lee about her motives. She’s passed away, but with the way we do it, with AI (artificial intelligence), you can talk to her and find out why she… You can hear everything I’ve ever said.”

Mr. Grubbs is CEO of VictoryXR, based in Davenport. VictoryXR is an 8-year-old software company that develops virtual reality technology for educational use.

VictoryXR bills itself as a “one-stop shop for all things virtual reality (VR),” and sells its software to 120 universities (the “metaversity”) and nearly as many school districts across the country.

“A field trip to the Great Wall of China is expensive,” said Grubbs, a University of Iowa graduate. “We have 150 global field trips all over the world. We have the beaches of Normandy, we have Gettysburg, we have the bridges of Selma, Alabama.”

The company also offers virtual job shadowing, career and technical training, and laboratory education such as animal dissection.

UI usage

The UI, which became the first Big Ten Metaversity last April, has so far not applied much VR.

Tippy College of Business professor Andrea Luangras used VR to study retail store layouts, and VictoryXR created a digital twin of the east end of the Iowa City campus using photos provided by the university.

“The idea is to get people to come and explore the campus and get a feel for what the campus is like,” said Jim Chaffee, Tippee’s chief operations officer. “We’re also working with our alumni to get those who can’t come in person, so to speak, to come back to campus.”

Chaffee plans to phase in VR this spring with a virtual scavenger hunt for alumni and students on the university’s digital twin campus.

“It’s still pretty new,” he said. “We didn’t really advertise it much. We use it as a way to set up landing posts. In my spring class, students will come and do a treasure hunt.”

“Everyone is figuring out how to use it in different ways,” said Grubbs, a former state representative. “It’s made a huge difference in the way innovations are deployed.”

“Crime Scene” in New Mexico

New Mexico State University hired an instructional design team when it became a metaversity in fall 2022. Several of its departments are now using VR to deliver courses for credit.

“We’re working with faculty,” said Robbie Grant, New Mexico State University Global, administrator of the university’s metaversity program. “This isn’t like handing a headset to a student and saying, ‘Go!’ We have to find a VR champion. We’re not going to force them.”

Among other things, the five-member design team created a VR class for criminal forensics professors. Students “visit” the cruise ship where the body was discovered and collect evidence and clues to determine the cause of death.

“She gave out all the clues and said, ‘Walk around this cruise ship,’ and you’ll talk about what you find,” said the university’s global director of instructional design. Andrew Cedillo said. “This is really great because she can start talking about her own experiences and answer all her questions in real time.”

The cruise ship is one of six different crime scenes prepared for the course and is used in place of a slideshow in the classroom.

“With VR, that little activity turns into something more,” Grant says. “The conversations are so fascinating. It was so nice to hear and see.”

The team also designed VR classes for language and hospitality services courses. The university purchased 190 VR headsets and mailed them with return labels for students to check out.

“If it’s damaged, the student pays,” Grant said. “We haven’t had to deal with it yet.”

Design teams apply what are called DICE principles to identify candidates for VR instruction, looking for projects where traditional methods would be risky, impossible, counterproductive, or expensive.

“If what you’re trying to do meets any of these four criteria, it makes sense to move it to VR,” Sedillo says.

“You need to look at courses that have a pretty good return on investment,” Grant says. “If you have the whole program, you have a much better chance of success.”

Similar to the University of Iowa, the NMSU team developed a virtual tour of parts of the Las Cruces campus. An expanded virtual campus has the potential to plan for emergency services and future additions to the campus.

This month, Grant and Cedillo are leading an online course on VR instructional design for colleagues at other schools.

“A different lens”

Grubbs said he started thinking about the educational potential of VR around 2013. Subsequent technological advances designed for online gamers have made VR even more appealing.

“When we first started building educational VR, it was a solo experience,” he said. “By 2020 or 2021, students will be able to take lessons in groups with their teachers. This will allow them to approach it with a different lens. It’s called “synchronicity.” In the gaming world, this is called “multiplayer.” ”

VictoryXR currently has offices in Davenport and Austin, Texas, but does not have many employees in either location.

“We are a fully remote company,” Grubbs said. “Our associates are all over the country. “We don’t have enough talent in Iowa to hire the right coding talent for this niche market.”

The company also offers augmented reality learning software that overlays images, audio, and video onto real-world scenes.

Grubbs said the company is looking to offer the following AI products:

“We plan to roll out our own AI teacher tools,” Grubbs said. “Teachers can create avatar tutors for their students, and students can receive training and ask questions without feeling embarrassed.”