ABSTRACT
Many students in higher education are eager to learn how to develop content for virtual reality. When teaching a class about design, instructors have an opportunity to structure projects in a way that combines fundamental skills with topics that allow students to hone their skill while addressing real-world problems. VR artists, developers, and researchers have been exploring environmental sustainability as a subject for decades, and VR is a particularly persuasive medium due to its immersion and interactivity. These qualities make VR something that is unique in its ability to influence human behavior and has the potential to help users learn about sustainability practices and realistic simulated scenarios—if there are content developers who are capable of creating such simulations. I had the opportunity to create a VR development course with a central focus on creating projects about sustainability. In this chapter I will showcase an overview of the content that was presented to students in an upper-level VR design course (from topics such as serious games, sustainability, and game theory), three examples of student projects, and qualitative outcomes from the class. In the process, we will also investigate ethical questions that arise from the use of VR content and creation.
