Students at Morehouse College will be able to take a Black history course through the metaverse starting in spring 2023. History professor Ovell Hamilton will teach the course, called History of the African Diaspora Since 1800.
Students will begin the course with the Haitian Revolution and end with the Civil Rights Movement. The course, offered in partnership with tech company VictoryXR, will use the metaverse to show students the reality of experiences like enslaved Africans being transported to America or navigating the Underground Railroad.
“That is an experience that they would not have if they were sitting in a classroom, if they were sitting in a lecture,” Hamilton told NBC News. “When you go there and see the bottom of a slave ship, see the slaves packed in together … you will have a new appreciation and you have a greater knowledge of how the events took place.”
Morehouse currently offers 10 courses in the metaverse in subjects such as journalism, English, biology, and sociology, according to NBC.
Approximately 500 students have taken classes in the metaverse since the college launched its virtual reality program.