"I Had No Idea": Immersive Virtual Environments and Their Ability to Bridge Understanding in the Management Classroom

Keywords: 3D-Immersive, DEI, Virtual

Abstract: This workshop highlights 3D-immersive environments for teaching about inclusion/exclusion with management students. Participants experience an exercise used in my inclusive leadership courses, involving 3D-immersive technology where students navigate a virtual "gallery" of information on the history and consequences of oppression in the community. Participants explore images and videos that provided information on systemic inequities, including the “redlining” of neighborhoods and resultant achievement and wealth gaps; and the police injustices experienced by BIPOC residents. The central activity involves witnessing digital storytelling from opposing perspectives on the experience of oppression. Reactions are collected and compared to data from classroom experience.