Digital Teaching Toolkit

Research and Instructional Technology Services, NYU Shanghai Library

Humanities

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

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

Digital Tools for Re-Creating the In-Classroom Experience

Course: Creativity Considered

Instructors: Adam Brandenburger, Faculty Director of the Program on Creativity & Innovation and Jeff Lehman, Vice Chancellor of NYU Shanghai

Students Enrolled: 12

Technology Used: NYU Zoom, NYU Classes, Slack, Skype

Adam Brandenburger and Jeff Lehman designed their course, Creativity Considered, to be a collective journey on which students go to enhance their creative selves. To this end, the course involved extensive in-class discussion and one or more in-class exercises per session. Each session is two and a half hours long, with two mini-breaks during the class. It also includes student presentations supplemented with slides and commentary.

To move the course to digital instruction, Brandenburger and Lehman began by determining that, with students in China and the U.S., they could only maintain the feel of the in-person experience by teaching synchronously. So they decided to teach the course late in the evening in New York City 10:00 PM, with Lehman joining from Shanghai at 10 AM.

Zoom class