Teaching with technology: Virtual reality, 3D scanning in humanities classrooms

MIDDLETOWN, Pa. - During her American art and society class last fall, Mariah Kupfner, assistant professor of American studies and public heritage at Penn State Harrisburg, showed students images of a moving panorama from the year 1850.

The 7.5-foot high, 348-foot long painting, "Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of the Mississippi Valley," was an early form of immersive visual experience, she explained, before turning their attention to another form of visual technology that's all about being immersive: virtual reality.

Kupfner, a 2024-2026 Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) Faculty Fellow, is working to bring virtual reality and other digital tools into the humanities classroom.

During that class, she worked with Sarah Kettell, educational applications developer with the Center for Teaching Excellence at Penn State Harrisburg, who instructed the students on how to use virtual reality (VR) headsets, which they used to virtually visit two museums, moving throughout and viewing artwork on display.

"As you're walking through these virtually, I want you to think about the experience of people who saw the moving panorama," said Kupfner, who was the recipient of Penn State Harrisburg's 2025 Teaching Excellence Award. "You can think about similarities and differences between that visual technology and this one. Both are trying to give people a sense of immersion in a space where they are not physically."

In discussions afterward, one student expressed that he'd never used VR before, just like those seeing the moving panorama were experiencing it for the first time - likely a life-changing experience for them, he said.

"Yeah, the sense of being able to see something that you haven't seen before, but also in a way you haven't seen before," Kupfner said. "That is in many ways, I think, more transformative."

Teaching and Learning with Technology fellowship

Faculty members chosen for the Teaching and Learning with Technology Faculty Fellow program team up with TLT, part of Penn State University Libraries, on innovative technology projects.

Kupfner, selected for the 2024-26 cohort, aimed to use virtual reality to encourage students to think rigorously about space and audience. Her goal was to encourage students to move from consumers to creators of digital content - fostering critical thinking and digital fluency - and become skilled in spatial storytelling that showcases an object's history and meaning.

Kupfner said she teaches a wide range of students, from those who may be taking a general education requirement to those pursuing graduate degrees in American Studies, often with a focus in the museum studies field. She first began working to incorporate virtual reality into her art history classes to help students visit galleries and experience artwork.

"I started thinking I should really be doing this in my museum studies classes too, and not just to visit places, but to think about how this digital space is set up," she said.

In spring 2025, students in Kupfner's museum studies course designed virtual exhibits for their final projects. They had to design not only the content but the environment for the exhibit itself - elements exhibition designers think about in their work, but that can be challenging to replicate in the classroom.

"It's one thing to think theoretically about the ways that lighting, seating, the height of artifacts, and fonts will work together with exhibition content and something completely different to actually build these things out in an environment and have the opportunity to experience them immersively," Kupfner said.

The TLT fellowship connected Kupfner with a team who could bring their technical knowledge to her American studies expertise to break down how students could use various tools. The fellowship also came with funding, which was used to purchase 3D scanners so that students could scan physical objects to be imported into their virtual worlds.

"Within Teaching and Learning with Technology, 3D scanning is something that we've been exploring for a while but with recent advancements and cost reductions in the technology, it's allowed us to expand our efforts and find unique use cases for the technology like Mariah is currently working on," said Dan Getz, TLT specialist at Penn State University Park.

Teaching and Learning with Technology places high value on being able to provide access and training to students around the commonwealth, he said, and in recent years, mobile applications and portable scanners have progressed enough to empower students and faculty to use the tools themselves.

"Combining 3D scanning with the VR headsets is also something that brings a deeper level of engagement with the content that is very exciting. The ability to see an object in true 3D, as opposed to viewing a model on an internet browser or through your phone, makes for a much more unique and interesting viewing experience," Getz said.

In fall 2025, Kupfner and students in her public heritage practices class spent time at Lincoln Cemetery, the oldest surviving Black cemetery in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where the nonprofit organization SavingOurAncestorsLegacy is working to restore the cemetery and preserve the stories of those buried there.

Students used 3D scanning apps on cell phones or tablet devices or a handheld 3D scanner to capture objects of interest related to their research projects, which explored subjects from headstone design to the stories of people buried in the cemetery.

Payton Becker, who is studying for her doctorate in American studies and graduate certificate in heritage and museum practice, worked with Kupfner to 3D scan coffin handles uncovered at the cemetery. They worked to find the best lighting and setup to capture the details.

"I think that 3D scanning can open up unique avenues of inquiry," Becker said. "It also requires you to slow down and really look at the object you are scanning - to notice the details and how the different parts connect and work together. This 'slow looking' is really important to material culture methodology, which is what I specialize in, so it was nice to encounter an object in a different way (through the 3D scan) but apply a familiar method."

Having a 3D scan also allowed her to revisit the coffin handles and examine them again later - a process that could be useful for fragile objects that need limited handling, she said.

Kupfner said that while she integrates VR and digital tools into classes, she does so to help students become more attentive to the material world. Visiting the cemetery, students were able to notice physical details - like the names of stone masons on headstones, for example.

"I was impressed by the level of curiosity and care displayed by these students - and they made some remarkable scans that document and digitally preserve some of the material culture of this amazing site," she said.

Kupfner said the TLT fellowship has been a wonderful experience.

"Not only have I been able to bring 3D scanning technology and VR headsets into many of my classes, but I have been able to work with excellent instructional designers and technical experts to think through the best ways to integrate these technologies into classes," she said. "I never want this work to feel gimmicky or tacked on. Instead, I am interested in using technology in thoughtful - and even sometimes critical -- ways to help us get closer to understanding, interpreting, and sharing history and our material world in rigorous, engaging, and accessible ways."