As professors are redesigning a lab unit for an introductory biology course at Arizona State University, they’re getting advice from Steven Spielberg and other Hollywood veterans on how to help students form emotional connections with fictional “frog-cats.” The university is building the course material as part of a partnership with a VR entertainment company called Dreamscape Immersive. One of the developers of ASU’s VR lab material, Mike Angilletta, said his goal is to run studies of how well students perform with the new lab versus traditional teaching, and he said an initial test found an 18 percent learning gain.
