Support Unity College Innovative Learning Using Extended Reality
September 18, 2020
Greetings!
When you give a gift to Unity College, you are investing in the education of environmental professionals. Your investment makes a powerful impact on our students, the faculty, and as a result, the world.
I am excited to share with you an innovative approach Unity College is taking that creates access to immersive education opportunities through the use of new technologies. In May, Unity College hired David Bass-Clark as our first Director of AR/VR Research and Development. While most of us have become familiar with the term virtual reality, David uses the term “extended reality.”
Extended reality (XR) is an inclusive term used to describe a variety of immersive technologies encompassing virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and technologies that have yet to be imagined. Where VR is an entirely computer-generated world, AR uses tools such as smartphones to add digital elements to the real world, and MR uses wearable head-mounted displays that allow the user to manipulate both digital and physical objects in real-time. We are looking to leverage the full range of XR for our online curriculum.
This short video will give you an idea of the potential that XR has for our students.
This industry-disrupting technology:
- makes a Unity College education more accessible than ever before to an increasingly diverse audience.
- gives students the ability to virtually explore and study all corners of our planet without the associated travel costs and without contributing to the carbon emissions necessary to traditionally travel across the globe.
- will familiarize students with a burgeoning technology that will likely become common in the workplace, a career-ready skill akin to the introduction of the internet and email decades ago.
I encourage you to support XR at Unity College with your investment today! Your consideration and generosity are appreciated. Please feel free to contact us at development@unity.edu with questions or to obtain more information.
In Unity,
Dr. Melik Peter Khoury
President
