Tag Archives: Academic Innovation

High school teacher uses U-M developed role playing simulation tool to keep students engaged

By | September 16, 2020
0 Comment
ViewPoint logo

New York-based high school teacher Sean Swider knew he had to develop a creative project to keep his advanced history students engaged, especially after a transition to remote learning. Swider then discovered the U-M role-playing simulation tool ViewPoint and decided to simulate an oil spill disaster. Modeled after the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, Swider created the… Read More »

Disinformation, misinformation, and fake news Teach-Out

By | September 11, 2020
0 Comment
Ben Nimmo

In a new Center for Academic Innovation Teach-Out, Ben Nimmo, director of investigations at Graphika, an online social media monitoring company, outlines tactics everyday people can use to anticipate, spot, and react to disinformation from potential “threat actors.” He calls it the “Four D’s” — Dismiss, Distract, Distort, and Dismay. The Disinformation, Misinformation, and Fake News Teach-Out helps people understand the… Read More »

MiXR Studios Podcast: Anti-Black racism and the promise of virtual reality

By | July 13, 2020
0 Comment
(Image of Dr. Courtney Cogburn smiling while in conversation with Jeremy Nelson.)

This week’s MiXR Studios podcast continues a conversation with Dr. Courtney Cogburn from Columbia University and discusses her groundbreaking work in virtual reality with 1000 Cut Journey and how it is as important as ever in the midst of the current Black Lives Matters movement. In the “1000 Cut Journey” virtual reality experience, the user becomes Mike Sterling,… Read More »

Police brutality in America: Teach-Out encourages learners to get informed, involved

By | July 9, 2020
0 Comment
" "

As Black Lives Matter protests continue throughout the nation and deadly run-ins with police repeatedly make headlines, the University of Michigan explores the topic with a “Police Brutality in America Teach-Out.” Online now, the self-guided learning event on Coursera explores the history of policing in the United States and the legacy of mistrust between police and minority communities.… Read More »

MiXR Studios podcast: Immersion through the novel and virtual realities

By | June 30, 2020
0 Comment
(Image of a person wearing a virtual reality headset sitting across from a virtually constructed person.)

This week’s MiXR Studios podcast explores how extended reality (XR) can be used in humanities to advance the University of Michigan’s liberal arts mission.  Sara Blair, the Patricia S. Yeager Professor of English, discusses how she designed a course to frame the novel with a goal of immersion using virtual reality (VR) as the object of comparison. She… Read More »

Tandem wins teaching innovation prize

By | June 30, 2020
0 Comment
(Portrait of Robin Fowler smiling.)

Tandem, a tool that helps track and facilitate group projects, has received the University of Michigan Provost’s Teaching Innovation Prize. Tandem was developed by the Center for Academic Innovation and Michigan Engineering. Robin Fowler, a lecturer in the Department of Engineering, and one of the faculty leads who helped develop Tandem. She is talking about Tandem at the… Read More »

MiXR Studios Podcast: XR’s Impact on Society and Culture

By | June 29, 2020
0 Comment
Lisa Nakanura

This week’s MiXR Studios podcast focused on diversity, race, ethnicity, and gender related to embodiment virtual reality (VR) in conversation with Lisa Nakamura and Chris Quintana.  Nakamura and Quintana discussed their XR experiences in the humanities and the possibilities of creating an XR classroom to study affordances in society and culture. Nakamura explained how she constructed a course… Read More »

Exploring XR at the Hybrid Immersive Teaching Symposium

By | June 29, 2020
0 Comment
" "

On May 28, 2020, the XR Initiative brought faculty and staff from the University of Michigan and institutions across the globe to explore how Extended Reality (XR) could be used to deliver hybrid teaching and learning during a four-hour teaching symposium.  More than 150 people attended the symposium to share learning goals and objectives for their areas of… Read More »

U-M students have free access to entire Coursera catalog

By | June 22, 2020
0 Comment
" "

University of Michigan students from the Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint campuses have free access for a limited time to more than 4,000 learning experiences from top universities and industries through the new Coursera for Campus initiative.  With more than 70% of the world’s students impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, Coursera worked with its partners, including U-M, to provide free… Read More »

MiXR Studios Podcast: Creating an XR Nuclear Reactor

By | June 19, 2020
0 Comment
(Illustration of a nuclear reactor, glowing blue.)

This MiXR Studios podcast explores nuclear engineering and the recreation of the decommissioned Ford Nuclear Reactor in virtual reality with Brendan Kochunas, assistant professor of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences at U-M.  In 2003, the Ford Nuclear Reactor was decommissioned. This forced U-M students to find and visit other reactors for hands-on learning. To enhance the learning goals… Read More »

MiXR Studios Podcast: Nursing clinical simulations with guest Michelle Aebersold

By | June 12, 2020
0 Comment
Michelle Aebersold, University of Michigan Clinical Professor of Nursing

This week’s MiXR Studios podcast explored nursing simulations and extended reality (XR) from Second Life in discussion with Michelle Aebersold.  Michelle Aebersold, a U-M clinical professor of nursing, spoke about her journey into XR and her efforts to build multi-user simulations at the School of Nursing, starting with Second Life and continuing today using virtual reality (VR). She… Read More »

Online Teaching at U-M site provides faculty resources

By | May 4, 2020
0 Comment
illustration of man and woman in front of Online Teaching home page

To support the university community in preparing for the fall term, the Center for Academic Innovation (CAI) has just launched Online Teaching at U-M, a new website hosting resources and learning experiences to help faculty and instructional staff learn to teach effectively online. While the original focus of CAI’s work was intended to extend U-M’s reach and impact through… Read More »

15 things students (and others) can do at Michigan Online

By | April 7, 2020
0 Comment
young woman on a sofa wearing earbuds and working on a laptop

Michigan Online contains more than 180 learning experiences and is available free to U-M students, faculty, staff, and alumni. For students, it is a place to take courses, participate in Teach-Outs, and earn degrees all from the comfort of their own homes. Especially during these difficult times, it is a great way for anyone to broaden their knowledge, complement… Read More »

U-M awards six XR projects under new initiative

By | March 23, 2020
0 Comment
Extended Reality (XR) @ Michigan logo

U-M has awarded funding to six extended reality projects under the its new XR Initiative, announced in the fall. The three-year funded initiative calls for the Center for Academic Innovation to seed new projects and experiments that integrate XR into residential and online curricula, and to create innovative public/private partnerships to develop new XR related educational technology. “The… Read More »

FutureLearn Campus provides additional course access to U-M students, staff, and alumni

By | March 16, 2020
0 Comment
Future Learn home page

U-M and the Center for Academic Innovation are proud to be the first university partner with social learning platform FutureLearn in the launch of FutureLearn Campus. This new offering in the platform allows Michigan students, staff, and alumni access to online short courses on FutureLearn.  “Both FutureLearn and the University of Michigan are committed to delivering high-quality education… Read More »

Film students step into the shoes of a filmmaker using virtual reality

By | March 13, 2020
0 Comment
Instructor helping student using VR technology

Thanks to generous grants from LSA Technology Services, U-M film students now have the unique opportunity to get some hands-on experience with filmmaking. The Citizen Kane VR project lets students use VR technologies to reshoot a key scene from the classic film at the Duderstadt Center Visualization Studio. Developers in the Duderstadt Center Emerging Technologies Group modeled clip from… Read More »

Register for the Extended Reality at Michigan Summit, April 14

By | February 26, 2020
0 Comment
Extended Reality (XR) @ Michigan logo

Join us on Tuesday, April 14 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. for the first ever Extended Reality (XR) at Michigan Summit. We’ll welcome speakers from all over the country to share their knowledge and insight around XR. Please register if you plan to attend.   The XR at Michigan Summit expects to feature the following: Featured speakers who are national leaders in… Read More »