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About Birkbeck's Immersive Learning Centre

The Immersive Learning Centre (ILC) provides access to learning beyond the classroom by providing virtual learning experiences that would be too expensive or impossible to provide in the real world: virtual field visits, gallery and museum tours, immersive documentaries, simulations, games and more.

Example use cases

Our recent work with academics offered students inspiring and thought-provoking ways to learn across a range of subject areas. Examples of these immersive learning sessions include:

A VR image of George Birkbeck

An avatar of our founder, George Birkbeck, created to celebrate Birkbeck's 200th anniversary. His face was modelled on contemporary portraits and animated to give a celebratory speech

  • Brand management

    An interactive resource created by scanning the interior of Fortnum & Mason’s department store to demonstrate brand management concepts. Students could visualise and interact with brand elements in a virtual environment created by a 360 camera. They also used interactive software to showcase their mastery of branding principles to respond to the assessment brief.

  • Curating

    • Students participated in an interactive presentation on XR in the arts and tried out experiences ranging from virtual tours of museums to an interactive digital recreation of Ann Frank’s house. Also used interactive software to design an art exhibition proposal.

  • Microfossils

    Students interacted with a collection of digitised microfossils. They could examine the virtual fossils in their hands viewing from different angles which was a more enriching experience compared to viewing images in a PowerPoint presentation.

  • Living with Climate Change

    Students engaged in a virtual reality, scenario-based activity exploring the impacts of climate change and rising sea levels on communities. They viewed a graphical simulation of sea level rising on coastal communities in California. Afterwards, they collaborated in groups to discuss the associated risks and brainstorm potential solutions.

  • Social Anthropology: Bodies

    Using virtual reality headsets students explored embodiment and narrative storytelling through their senses, exploring the built environment through an interactive experience based on the audio diaries of John Hull, who gradually went blind in his thirties.

  • Social Anthropology: Power

    Participants viewed an immersive film made by Indegenous the Black Foot peoples of Alberta, Canada, exploring how settler attitudes to identify, family and social structures continue to impact these communities, especially regarding power dynamics and the role of the state. Often described as an ‘empathy machine’, the VR headsets caused even greater emotional impact and the feeling of being trapped. Students were very impressed with this experience and it led to deep discussion.

Contact us

Learn more about what we do by exploring our website or contacting us via email at immersive-learning@bbk.ac.uk.

Birkbeck staff and students can visit our Immersive Learning Centre SharePoint site (log-in required).