VR Akropolis: Classical Studies Professor Jess Paga brings history to life for students

On Tuesday, April 16, the Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation welcomed Professor Jess Paga’s Classical Athens class to STLI’s VR lab. Using the Wander app in Meta Quest Oculus headsets provided by STLI, students embarked on a virtual tour of Ancient Athens, particularly the Akropolis, through an array of 360° photos curated by STLI’s Assistant Director Mike Blum and Paga. 

The roughly 30-person class split into two rotational groups for 30 minutes each, with one half interacting with the VR technology while the other half worked on class assignments and decorated Greek pots brought by Paga. The class is slated to return for a second virtual field trip to Agora the following week using the same class and technological format. 

Before the virtual journey began, Paga encouraged her students to especially pay attention to the “architectural dialogue” between the various buildings across the Akropolis of Athens, noting the scale and height of each of the buildings as well as the distance between them to gauge how long it would have taken the average Athenian to travel between them. 

She expressed that she hopes students will gain a “deeper, richer understanding” of what it was like at the Akropolis but stressed that the most important factor was to have fun and explore the virtual spaces to their liking. 

Some student reactions: 

“VR is incredible technology and it can be easy to get lost, so I really appreciate the curated photos to get some of the best angles”

“It was super immersive!”

“Seeing how the ruins are in their environment really helped bring the class concepts to life”