Teaching Immersive Media at the "Dawn of the New Everything"

In this paper, we discuss the design and implementation of a college-level course on immersive media at a performing arts institution. Focusing on the artistic applications of modern virtual reality technologies, the course aims to offer students a practice-based understanding of the concepts, tools and techniques involved in the design of audiovisual immersive systems and experiences. We describe the course structure and outline the intermixing of practical exercises with critical theory. We provide details of the design projects and discussion tasks assigned throughout the semester. We then discuss the outcome of a course evaluation session conducted with students. Finally, we identify the main challenges and opportunities for educators dealing with modern immersive media technologies with the hope that the findings offered in this paper can support the design and delivery of similar courses in a range of music and arts curricula.