UNC Hussman innovation stories: the new reality is virtual

On the first week of remote classes at UNC-Chapel Hill, The Well featured UNC Hussman's Steven King, associate professor and chief innovation officer at Reese Innovation Lab, who is using virtual reality to connect with students remotely:

Beginning Wednesday, Hussman School of Journalism and Media Associate Professor Steven King’s 28 students will don the Oculus Go Virtual Reality headsets he mailed them and convene in a virtual space in the Reese Innovation Lab. To inspire them and provide instructions for headsets, he created a short video filmed in his backyard.

As he prepared to teach his classes remotely, he shared photos on Instagram and Twitter, as he tested his own technology and set up a workspace with virtual reality headsets, laptops and monitors.

“I am working from the kitchen bar with three boys running around so that is not ideal,” said King, who is chief innovation officer of the Reese Innovation Lab.

His advice for his fellow faculty: Engage your students with questions and polls. Students should consume content outside of class time and use in-class time for discussions. King also provided a few tips on working with remote teams: Communicate early and often; assume positive intent; and make the best use of tools like Slack, Zoom, Google Cloud and others.

For more, follow UNC Hussman on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram. Stay tuned for more UNC Hussman innovation stories as our community adapts to this unprecedented time.