XR teaching lab at Partick Burgh Hall
The XR (Extended Reality) teaching lab at Partick Burgh Hall (PBH) is designed to facilitate XR teaching at the University of Glasgow. PBH minimises onboarding, eases troubleshooting and provides a “white glove” service for anyone exploring XR for teaching.
The lab is a 12m x 12m space with 15 individual PC-VR stations. Each station incorporates a high-end PC, touch screen monitor, VR (Virtual Reality) headset and infrastructure to ensure a safe boundary.
A seminar space is also provided in the middle of the room.
The XR teaching lab at PBH has proven to be adaptable in several different use cases across the University of Glasgow and beyond, including (but not limited to) the following Virtual Reality classes:
- Battling Infection (Immunology)
- Burns Beyond Reality (Scottish Literature)
- Disease Diagnostics Lab (Molecular Methods)
- Gutenberg Press (Information Studies)
- Introductory Physics (Physics)
- Protein Molecule Viewer (Chemistry)
- Data Landscapes (Social Science)
The University of Glasgow is a partner in Meta's "Meta for Education" program, which focuses on integrating virtual and mixed reality into education. This collaboration aims to explore the benefits of immersive technologies, like extended reality (XR), for learning, with a specific focus on practical implementation and teacher capacity. The University is also conducting research on the operational and logistical challenges of deploying XR technologies in education.
