The Pacific Northwest Open Extended Reality Initiative

This project aims to serve the national interest by creating a regional training and resource network for educators in the Pacific Northwest to explore and implement virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (collectively referred to as Extended Reality or XR) modules. The goal of this project is to increase access, familiarity, and adoption of XR for teaching and learning to promote educational equity across diverse student populations. This project represents a first step towards expanding access to XR in two-year colleges. To achieve this goal, Bellevue College will: 1) Create an XR Educational Exchange network of Community and Technical Colleges; 2) Develop foundational XR educational resources for educators; 3) Implement a project-based collaboration process to design custom XR resources and train future XR professionals; and 4) Launch an open access XR educational archive for dissemination throughout the network. Creating a vibrant, high-quality, digital learning environment that supports experiential learning through XR educational resources, and building faculty capacity to provide immersive XR facilitated learning strategies across the curriculum in two-year colleges has the potential to expand access, improve learning outcomes, and promote educational equity. This project will create a highly compelling learning experience for students in technology specializations through the XR development course. A minimum of ten XR classroom resources will be developed and implemented in two-year college classrooms. This project will also provide faculty with professional development opportunities, workshops, and events that explore XR technology as a teaching tool and that build proficiency with using this technology. Faculty outreach will incorporate guidance in XR adoption, integrative experiential learning, and curricular innovation that extends beyond the lifetime of the project. The NSF program description on Advancing Innovation and Impact in Undergraduate STEM Education at Two-year Institutions of Higher Education supports projects that advance STEM education initiatives at two-year colleges. The program description promotes innovative and evidence-based practices in undergraduate STEM education at two-year colleges. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.