Case Study: Brown University uses Google for Education VR tools to engage students in immersive history learning

Brown University uses VR to immerse students in American history

Brown University, a private Ivy League university in Providence, Rhode Island, wanted to find new ways to engage students and bring difficult-to-recreate historical moments to life. Working with Google for Education products including Jump, Tilt Brush, and Google Cardboard, the university’s Virtual Reality Artist-in-Residence, Adam Blumenthal, set out to make the forgotten Gaspee Affair more vivid and accessible for learners.

Google for Education helped Brown University build an immersive VR experience that combined 360-degree video, 3D painting, and interactive environments to reconstruct the Gaspee Affair and other scenarios such as simulated surgeries. The result was a self-guided, hands-on learning experience that students found highly engaging, with the prototype functioning like a virtual museum and supporting faster production, easier student participation, and better debriefing and review of high-stakes training.

Brown University

Adam Blumenthal

Professor of the Practice and Virtual Artist-in-Residence