Dr.Pauline Mackay is a world-leading expert on Robert Burns Studies. She is currently Lecturer in Robert Burns Studies at the University of Glasgow andAssociate Director at the Centre for Robert Burns Studies. Last year, Pauline’s idea to utilise the power of virtual reality to enhance how we teach about historical figures and interact with material culture associated with them was successfully selected as a winner of Edify’s Win a Lab competition.

Burns Beyond Reality allows the user to travel both back in time as well as into the imagery of Robert Burn’s famous poem Tam O’ Shanter. While there, the user can handle virtually curated artefacts relating to Robert Burns material culture and examine them within the context of the evolving poem. The development of this project led to Pauline presenting from within Edify to hundreds of Burns fans and scholars. In this talk, Pauline reflects on the process that led her to bringing Burns into the virtual, the questions that have arisen along the way, and her aspirations for using immersive teaching in the future.

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