Strategies for Advancing and Maximizing the Affordances of Extended Reality Technologies in Teaching and Learning

Extended Reality (XR) technologies have the potential to enhance student learning. Recent studies have shown that using XR can increase motivation in learners and improve retention of knowledge. A meta-analysis of by Hamilton (2020) found that “most studies [of XR in education] did find a significant advantage of using XR over less immersive methods of learning.” However, deployment of XR technologies at many universities has been uneven, ad hoc, and decentralized. To a great extent, this is because administrators and instructors are uncertain about how to implement and advance the use of XR technologies in their institutions in an efficacious, coherent, and pedagogically-informed way. This session will provide examples of actual use cases of XR technologies (both Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality); will identify affordances of XR technologies in higher education; will identify challenges facing the implementation and advance of XR technologies in higher education; and will propose strategies to support the expanded deployment of those technologies. Documentation supporting this session is available at http://bit.ly/XR-UW .