Can immersive learning be equitable for all? Reflections from ALTC2025

On the 23rd and 24th October, myself and some colleagues from Educational Design and Engagement attended and presented at the annual ALT Conference in Glasgow. It was great to come together with the learning technology community to share practice and discuss challenges in the sector. A highlight was being able to share the experience of creating a Short Courses Platform to bring together our extensive portfolio of short courses from across the University to create a one-stop shop for non-credit bearing provision. Whilst attending the sessions and workshops, two of the themes that resonated with me were the use of immersive learning experiences in courses and creating equitable learning experiences.

Whilst immersive learning has its challenges in terms of creation, access and maintenance, it can add value to learning. Placing students in scenarios to help prepare them for real-world situations that are hard to access, such as surgery, laboratory and field work, situations that are high risk. Immersive learning itself can require dedicated equipment (VR headsets for example), fast computers and high speed internet connections, making it especially suited to on campus teaching. For remote learning however, its use may exclude those learners who do not have access to necessary resources. The question is then, how equitable is the provision of immersive learning experiences for a global audience?

At the ALT Conference it was great to hear from the University of Glasgow on their recent immersive learning experiences for predominantly on-campus learners. With the launch of our new Short Courses Platform, aimed at a global audience of learners with on campus and online delivery, it made me question how we can make immersive learning accessible for all learners regardless of location.

It was interesting to hear about the challenges of resourcing, creating quality experiences that require a lot of footage and design work. Whilst including the pedagogy and building knowledge checks to ensure learning outcomes are met. Is this fundamental piece of the puzzle at risk? Is this about creating something flashy without any substance? There is also the question of licenses for creating and maintaining immersive learning scenarios and the knowledge to maintain them. This can make the process of creating immersive learning labour and resource intensive whilst potentially lacking clear educational benefit.

Thinking back to the keynote by Dr Gabi Witthaus, Engaging Learning: rethinking Inclusion with Insights from the Margins it was sobering to remember that for some learners, access to electricity and the internet is a luxury, never mind additional equipment to enhance a learning experience. Stripping learning back to basics can have its benefits helping learners connect with their peers and engage with reading and videos which can help increase focus, especially if their time is limited. For those with limited availability to power and connectivity the hope would be that this should be more manageable to download and access when they can.

Tools such as Thinglink can allow content creators to use their phones to film 360 footage and build that into immersive scenarios which is a great bridge to making immersive learning more accessible and helps negate the need for headsets and 360 cameras but doesn’t really alleviate the issues around connectivity.

Immersive learning, as with all learning technology can enhance the educational experience when used in a thoughtful and well-designed method. Alternative methods, such as using mobile phones which are more mainstream assets, can be used if an immersive learning experience enhances the learning experience. It’s clear that there isn’t a one size fits all approach that works for all learners, and good learning design can help ensure an equitable learning experience for your intended audience.