“Using Virtual Reality and 360‚ÄêDegree Video in the Religious Studies Classroom: An Experiment”

The advent of relatively inexpensive 360‚Äêdegree cameras and virtual reality (VR) headsets brings new possibilities to the study of religion by allowing students to become virtually immersed in distant religious environments at very little cost. These tools can serve as the basis for assignments that help to engage students and meet core learning outcomes such as empathetic understanding and ethnographic analysis of religious place, ritual, and behavior in light of theories of religion. This article describes and reflects on the experimental incorporation of these technologies in two sections of an introductory religious studies course at a small two‚Äêyear campus in the University of Wisconsin System.