Extended Reality Projects
The Center for Academic Innovation works with campus partners to create immersive learning experiences using extended reality technologies.
Across 19 U-M school and college partners, we’ve collaborated on more than three dozen XR projects. We have built full virtual environments, augmented and virtual reality experiences, and used virtual productions to create digital twins, training programs, and interactive projects.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality provides an immersive digital experience that transports you into a fully simulated environment, engaging multiple senses to create a sense of presence in a non-physical world.
XR Nuclear Reactor Laboratory
1000 Cut Journey
College of Engineering, Brendan Kochunas
Columbia, Courtney Cogburn; Stanford, Jeremy Bailenson
Residential course | Virtual recreation of the decommissioned Ford Nuclear Reactor, allowing students to perform various experiments and obtain data for further analysis.
Open Experience (Meta) | Immersive experience of life as a Black man in America. Partnered with Columbia and Stanford universities to recreate an earlier version using Unreal and make it widely accessible in Meta Quest store.
Under the Skin
Augmented Tectonics
School of Nursing, Michelle Aebersold
Taubman School of Architecture & Urban Planning, Jonathan Rule
Residential course | Students learn how to safely administer anti-cancer drugs in virtual reality and understand what is happening at a cellular level. Students can practice giving the drugs and managing potentially hazardous situations.
Residential course | Students learn construction concepts as abstract drawings and images are reimagined in a fully virtual environment that can be manipulated to explore the interactions between different building materials.
Interactive 360
Accessible interactive immersive video, which can be viewed on a headset or a smartphone, that allows you to explore panoramic environments and interact with elements on the screen.
Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills
Feedback Loops: How to Give & Receive High-Quality Feedback
Stephen M. Ross School of Business, George Siedel
Michigan Law, Patrick Barry
Open Online Course | Learners practice negotiation skills and strategies in a virtual pitch meeting, recreating the intensity of a high-stakes negotiation using 360-degree video.
Open Online Course | Learners practice delivering prepared remarks in various settings recreated using 360-degree video. They receive a framework to learn how to give and receive appropriate feedback.
High Stakes Leadership: Leading in Times of Crisis
Advancing Health Equity: A Guide to Reducing Bias in Healthcare
Stephen M. Ross School of Business, Mike Barger
School of Public Health, Ebbin Dotson
Open Online Course | Learners enter a virtual recreation of an airport, reacting to disgruntled customers and employees during a weather delay to learn how to navigate a crisis scenario.
Open Online Course | Current or future health practitioners take part in a virtual bias training scenario where they witness or experience bias in healthcare and practice how to handle a potentially uncomfortable situation.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality enhances our perception of the real world by overlaying digital information, graphics, and sensory enhancements onto our physical surroundings through devices like smartphones.
The Nurse’s Toolkit
Nursing Training
School of Nursing, Deb Lee
School of Nursing, Deb Lee
Open Online Course | Nursing professionals receive training for clinical settings, including an augmented reality experience in airway management and examining types of bone fractures.
Residential Course | Using augmented reality to offer training procedures and regular low-risk practice in essential and frequent nursing skills, including sterile urinary catheterization, thoracentesis, and central line placement.
Virtual Production
Virtual production immerses people into virtual environments by combining computer graphics, virtual reality, and real-time interactive visuals to create new interactive ways of teaching and learning.
Black Performance as Social Protest
Real Estate Development: Building Value in Your Community
School of Music, Theatre, & Dance, Louise Toppin; Georgetown, Anita Gonzalez
Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, Chase Cantrell
Open Online Course | Learners experience a virtual production that transports them to various times in history when Black people used song as a form of protest, including a rice plantation in the 1800s, a Baptist church in the 1920s, and protests in the 1960s and modern day.
Open Online Course | Explore property and community development fundamentals as instructors manipulate a dynamic virtual environment, highlighting evolving landscapes and properties, identifying core course concepts, and immersing learners in a developing neighborhood.
Extended Reality Projects
The Center for Academic Innovation works with campus partners to create immersive learning experiences using extended reality technologies.
Across 19 U-M school and college partners, we’ve collaborated on more than three dozen XR projects. We have built full virtual environments, augmented and virtual reality experiences, and used virtual productions to create digital twins, training programs, and interactive projects.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality provides an immersive digital experience that transports you into a fully simulated environment, engaging multiple senses to create a sense of presence in a non-physical world.
XR Nuclear Reactor Laboratory
College of Engineering, Brendan Kochunas
Residential course | Virtual recreation of the decommissioned Ford Nuclear Reactor, allowing students to perform various experiments and obtain data for further analysis.
1000 Cut Journey
Columbia, Courtney Cogburn; Stanford, Jeremy Bailenson
Open Experience (Meta) | Immersive experience of life as a Black man in America. Partnered with Columbia and Stanford universities to recreate an earlier version using Unreal and make it widely accessible in Meta Quest store.
Under the Skin
School of Nursing, Michelle Aebersold
Residential course | Students learn how to safely administer anti-cancer drugs in virtual reality and understand what is happening at a cellular level. Students can practice giving the drugs and managing potentially hazardous situations.
Augmented Tectonics
Taubman School of Architecture & Urban Planning, Jonathan Rule
Residential course | Students learn construction concepts as abstract drawings and images are reimagined in a fully virtual environment that can be manipulated to explore the interactions between different building materials.
Interactive 360
Students learn construction concepts as abstract drawings and images are reimagined in a fully virtual environment that can be manipulated to explore the interactions between different building materials.
Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills
Stephen M. Ross School of Business, George Siedel
Open Online Course | Learners practice negotiation skills and strategies in a virtual pitch meeting, recreating the intensity of a high-stakes negotiation using 360-degree video.
Feedback Loops: How to Give & Receive High-Quality Feedback
Michigan Law, Patrick Barry
Open Online Course | Learners practice delivering prepared remarks in various settings recreated using 360-degree video. They receive a framework to learn how to give and receive appropriate feedback.
High Stakes Leadership: Leading in Times of Crisis
Stephen M. Ross School of Business, Mike Barger
Open Online Course | Learners enter a virtual recreation of an airport, reacting to disgruntled customers and employees during a weather delay to learn how to navigate a crisis scenario.
Advancing Health Equity: A Guide to Reducing Bias in Healthcare
School of Public Health, Ebbin Dotson
Open Online Course | Current or future health practitioners take part in a virtual bias training scenario where they witness or experience bias in healthcare and practice how to handle a potentially uncomfortable situation.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality enhances our perception of the real world by overlaying digital information, graphics, and sensory enhancements onto our physical surroundings through devices like smartphones.
The Nurse’s Toolkit
School of Nursing, Deb Lee
Open Online Course | Nursing professionals receive training for clinical settings, including an augmented reality experience in airway management and examining types of bone fractures.
Nursing Training
School of Nursing, Deb Lee
Residential course | Using augmented reality to offer training procedures and regular low-risk practice in essential and frequent nursing skills, including sterile urinary catheterization, thoracentesis, and central line placement.
Virtual Production
Virtual production immerses people into virtual environments by combining computer graphics, virtual reality, and real-time interactive visuals to create new interactive ways of teaching and learning.
Black Performance as Social Protest
School of Music, Theatre, & Dance, Louise Toppin; Georgetown, Anita Gonzalez
Open Online Course | Learners experience a virtual production that transports them to various times in history when Black people used song as a form of protest, including a rice plantation in the 1800s, a Baptist church in the 1920s, and protests in the 1960s and modern day.
Real Estate Development: Building Value in Your Community
Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, Chase Cantrell
Open Online Course | Explore property and community development fundamentals as instructors manipulate a dynamic virtual environment, highlighting evolving landscapes and properties, identifying core course concepts, and immersing learners in a developing neighborhood.