2025-06-27 –, University of Louisville School of Dentistry DE 119
University of Louisville faculty will share their experiences using digital tools and assignments to increase student engagement and support learning outcomes. This workshop session will include sample lesson plans for group and individual digital projects—such as movies and museums—and a virtual reality demo. Participants will have the opportunity to use VR headsets to visit an ancient site and ask one of UofL’s instructional technology specialists how their institutions might support these types of projects.
Immersive pasts: implementing virtual reality “field trips” in the world history classroom
Abstract for Additional Participant 1:This paper will offer some reflections on a year-long experiment in incorporating virtual reality “field trips” into ancient history courses at the college level. Utilizing existing 3D models of archaeological sites in conjunction with Oculus Quest 2 headsets, students were able to explore sites ranging from an ancient Egyptian tomb to a late Roman villa, gaining a greater sense of the materiality and spatiality of the ancient world. We will discuss some of the practical considerations involved in setting up such field trips and how the experience can be scaffolded to best support student learning outcomes. Participants in the panel will also have the opportunity to try out a headset and explore an ancient site for themselves.
Title for Additional Participant 2:Museums, Maps, and Movies: Digital Assignments to Share Historical Research with the Public
Abstract for Additional Participant 2:This paper will share examples of group and individual digital projects created by undergraduate and graduate students in world history courses, such as Ancient Greece, the Roman World, Medieval Spain, and Digital History. Assignments formats and scaffolding techniques to support student progress for creating historical narrative movies, story maps, digital museums, and webpages will be presented. The pedagogical value of these assignments, how they support student learning outcomes, and challenges for students and professors also will be discussed.
Abstract for Additional Participant 3:Adam will briefly present some of the digital initiatives developed at UofL and be on-hand to answer questions about how to set up virtual reality field trips. He also will help all participants use VR headsets to explore an ancient site.
Dr. Rebecca A. Devlin is an Associate Professor of History (Term) at the University of Louisville. Her manuscript, Bishops, Community and Authority in Late Roman Society: Northwestern Hispania, ca. 370-470 C.E (Amsterdam University Press , 2024), employs an interdisciplinary approach, using archaeological and written sources to put the clergy of the Iberian Peninsula in their economic, social and political contexts. Her current projects explore the role of merchants, the non-elite, enslaved peoples, freed-persons and the Church in economic and social developments in both the ancient world and nineteenth-century Kentucky.
- J1: Panel - Colonialism, Commerce and Culture: Economic Conflicts and the Contributions of Enslaved Laborers in the Iberian Atlantic World, 15th-19th Centuries
- D1: Roundtable - Documenting and Sharing Local Black History: Community-Engaged Public History Projects at the University of Louisville
- A1: Panel - Books, Birds, Bourbon and Blues: the Impacts and Legacies of Louisville’s Collectors, Musicians and Enslaved Laborers
- E1: Panel - Battles and Bones: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Understand and Preserve Contested Spaces in the Ancient and Medieval World