Digital Teaching Toolkit

Research and Instructional Technology Services, NYU Shanghai Library

Teaching Cases

Introduction

Faculty at NYU Shanghai have been exploring how technology could enhance their teaching and students’ learning for years. We have compiled the following case studies to provide educators worldwide with a resource for planning their own teaching. 

These case studies explore how instructors are finding innovative solutions to maximize student engagement, adapting in-classroom techniques to online teaching pedagogy, and their approaches to synchronous and asynchronous lectures. They also cover the challenges and lessons learned, as well as their experiences with technology. 

Index of case studies by course subject:

Arts Computer Science Humanities
Languages Mathematics Music
Writing Psychology  

History of Chinese Art class at XR Space

Course: History of Chinese Art class at XR Space

Instructor: Yutong Li

Students Enrolled: 16

In Professor Yutong Li’s History of Chinese Art (GCHN-SHU 156) this Summer Session II, students become digital curators. Hosted at the XR Space, the class utilized immersive platforms—such as Frame, Spatial, and Artsteps—to design 3D virtual galleries dedicated to traditional Chinese masterpieces.

Students curated spatial narratives, strategically placing artifacts to guide viewers through historical and thematic journeys. The project culminated in live VR guided tours, where students used avatars to lead peers through their digital exhibitions. By blending ancient art with virtual reality, the course prepares students to preserve and present cultural heritage in the digital age.

history of Chinese art 1 history of Chinese art 2 history of Chinese art 3
 

Immersive learning with VR Hajj

Course: Arab-Islamic Influence on the West

Instructor: Shuang Wen

Students Enrolled: 7

In Professor Shuang Wen’s class, students engaged with complex topics of religion and culture by virtually experiencing the Hajj and Umrah. Using Meta Quest virtual reality headsets, students immersed themselves in the Pilgrim VR Hajj and Umrah application.

This immersive experience allowed students to virtually walk through the holy sites of Mecca and simulate the pilgrimage rituals. Utilizing VR provides a powerful, hands-on opportunity for students to experience and analyze a critical global event that is often inaccessible, effectively bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and lived cultural experience.

Shuang's Class

Retail Technology and Channel Management: The Chinese Market class with Emerging Technologies

Course: Retail Technology and Channel Management

Instructor: Rayn Wang

Students Enrolled: 20

We have a fascinating example of how cutting-edge technology is being applied to retail strategy and marketing in Professor Rayn Wang’s Retail Technology and Channel Management class.

First, to enhance market understanding, students utilized 360-degree footage of targeted markets and store fronts. This high-fidelity footage, captured from actual locations by Jesse, provided an immersive, localized view of the retail environment—a critical step for effective channel management and localization strategies.

The project then pivoted to digital content creation. Students experimented with AI tools to develop product promotional videos and create unique avatars. To push the creative envelope further, these avatars were then 3D modeled and rigged with the support of student worker Mathew Ponon. The class welcomed Professor Yuting Zhao for a special session where her dance movement was motion captured at the XR Space and then applied directly onto the 3D avatars the students created. This final step of combining artistic performance, motion capture, and digital modeling provided an incredibly rich, multimodal creation experience.

This comprehensive hands-on experience, moving from market observation to advanced digital content creation and motion graphics, significantly broadens the tools available for marketing and retail promotion, preparing students for the future of digital commerce.

Rayn's Retail Class-1     Rayn's Retail Class-2     Rayn's Retail Class-3

Digital Health, Digital Intervention class at XR Space

Course: Digital Health, Digital intervention

Instructor: Jin Han

Students enrolled: 2

In Professor Jin Han’s Digital Health, Digital Intervention course, students didn’t just study digital health; they experienced it. The class explored the intersection of technology and well-being through immersive tools. This included using TRIPP, a virtual reality platform for guided meditation and mindfulness, allowing students to understand firsthand how VR can be used for digital therapeutic interventions. They also gained a deeper understanding of the human body by viewing Human Anatomy in VR, offering a spatial and interactive experience far beyond traditional textbooks.

Beyond the internal (the human body), the class also focused on capturing and manipulating the external world. Students had a fascinating, hands-on experience scanning the iconic tree in the NYU Shanghai courtyard using a LiDAR scanner. The resulting point cloud data was then imported into Unreal Engine to blend with models created using photogrammetry methods and other virtual objects. This practical experience provides students with a foundational understanding of the core technologies—including advanced sensor input, 3D spatial mapping, and digital rendering—that underpin state-of-the-art medical technology, such as the da Vinci surgical robots.

Jin's Digital Health Class          Digital Health case -2

EAP class at XR Space

Course: English for Academic Purposes

Instructor: Sarah Warfield

Students Enrolled: 4

In Fall 2025, Professor Sarah Warfield (EAP) and Senior Emerging Technologies Associate Jesse Yu collaborated on an innovative project. Following workshops led by Jesse on SketchUp and other emerging technologies, Professor Warfield’s EAP students designed and modeled their personal Utopia in 3D. The project culminated in dynamic final presentations where students used Augmented Reality (AR) to showcase their models, effectively blending advanced English communication with immersive technology. Student Worker Melissa Ching also provided support, assisting the students during the final AR presentations.

Sarah's EAP Class

Live Demos, Critiques, and Lectures: Creative Solutions for an Online Studio-Art Class

Courses: Introduction to Studio Art, Projects in Studio Art

Instructors: Barbara Edelstein, Jian-Jun Zhang

Students enrolled: 15

Technology used: NYU Classes, Zoom, PowerPoint, Google Slides

Clinical Associate Professors Barbara Edelstein and Jian-Jun Zhang are teaching live art classes to 15 students using three computers, a camera, and a speaker in their classroom studio space on campus. The duo has been able to teach in the same space all semester because they also happen to be married, and have been socially isolating together. As most students are based in China, it is possible to provide synchronous demonstrations and live classroom discussions with help from NYU Shanghai’s Research and Instructional Technology Services (RITS) department and IT.

One screen shows Edelstein speaking, the second shows Zhang, and the third shows what is happening on the demo table so that students can simultaneously hear their professor’s voices and see their hands while they work. The third camera is useful in demonstrating, for example, different brushwork, ink, color, and line techniques.

jj teaching
Students watch Zhang’s live demonstration of techniques used in working with ink. 

Edelstein uses a fourth monitor to see her PowerPoint notes as she presents to the class. “If JJ is doing the demo, they see his hands on the table, they hear his voice, and they see me on the screen,” says Edelstein.

Students are able to follow along and try their hand at the techniques from home because the instructors worked with their art supplies distributor to mail out packets of art supplies to each student before the course commenced. The individual packs include specific types of paper, brushes, color, ink, and a plate for mixing.

art supplies packet
A table set up shows the contents of the art supplies packet that students received.

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Human Genetics: Pre-recorded Lectures and Lab Sessions

Course: Human Genetics: Human Health and Disease (Lecture & Laboratory course)

Instructor: David Fitch, Professor of Biology at NYU

Students enrolled: 5

Technology used: NYU Classes, VoiceThread, and SimUText

“Human Genetics: Human Health and Disease” is a theoretical and practical two-credit lecture course and a two-credit lab course in which students in Chicago, New York, and Shanghai explore how genes shape human traits, and how genetic defects can result in diseases. This semester, David Fitch, Professor of Biology at NYU, is teaching the course remotely from New York to five students in China and the United States. 

Fitch mainly uses pre-recorded lectures on VoiceThread to cover the theories of genetics, which allows students the freedom to watch lectures whenever they want. His first video included a welcome video, followed by audio and annotations explaining knowledge in detail on the subsequent slides. On VoiceThread, students are able to leave text, audio, or even video comments visible to their classmates. Comments can be made at any point, and students use them to ask questions, express thoughts, and spur discussion. 

Fitch added a video welcome message to the first slide of Lecture 1.

Fitch’s video welcome message on the first slide of Lecture 1.
While they go through slides with Fitch’s audio explanations and annotations, students can interact by adding text, audio, or video comments.
While they go through slides annotated with the instructor’s audio explanations and annotations, students interact by adding text, audio, or video comments.

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How to Teach Design Thinking Online with Three Simple Tools

Course: Design Thinking

Instructor: Yuan Yanyue, Assistant Arts Professor

Students Enrolled: 10

Technology Used: Zoom, Slack, Google Docs/Slides

In Assistant Arts Professor Yuan Yanyue’s Design Thinking course, students are introduced to the concepts of ‘design thinking’ and challenged to apply them to specific problems and bring about socially-responsible innovations.

Because the class is project-based and relies heavily on group work, Yuan was concerned that the move to a digital environment might affect her ability to facilitate teamwork among students — especially those based in different time zones.

Yuan's class
Yuan’s class of 10 students in one of Yuan’s bi-weekly live sessions.

Quickly, Yuan settled on using a combination of asynchronous and synchronous online tools.  From her home study in Shanghai, Yuan tapes lectures, leads live sessions, and conducts one-on-one office hours with her 10 students, half of whom are in China, while the other half are based in the U.S. 

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Silver Lining to Language Teaching Online: Better Attendance, Software Assisted Pronunciation, and Shyer Students Speaking Out

Daniels’ live discussion with students
Screen Capture of Daniels’ live discussion with students

Course: Crime, Punishment, and Atonement

Instructor: Marcel Daniels, Lecturer at English for Academic Purposes (EAP), NYU Shanghai

Students Enrolled: 12 * 2 sections 

Technology used: NYU Zoom, NYU Classes, NYU Qualtrics, Google Drive, Google Docs, Doodle, Flipgrid, Podcasts

Marcel Daniels, a lecturer in English for Academic Purposes program, is now teaching the course “Crime, Punishment, and Atonement” in Atlanta to two groups of 12 freshmen spread out across China. It’s his first time teaching this course, which focuses on training students’ listening and speaking skills in academic English.

Usually in his language class, Daniels conducts a lecture, shows students a live talk, divides students into small groups for discussion, and then asks them to report key points of their respective discussions back to the class. When all the activities were migrated online, Daniels’ previous teaching experience with digital platforms and technologies helped him adapt quickly to harnessing online tools and managing virtual classrooms. 

Daniels says he has been able to find equivalent solutions online for nearly all of his teaching activities. Every week, he prepares one or two asynchronous lectures and uploads the recordings and other supplementary videos or handouts to Google Drive and NYU Classes before class. During class, he moderates live discussions through Zoom, monitors notes that students take in group discussions on Google Docs, and uses Doodle polls to help students schedule group discussions outside of class. He also used NYU Qualtrics to administer an anonymous online survey about students’ familiarity, and comfort and experience level with remote learning.

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