Join us on October 24, 2024 at 9 am Pacific / 12 pm Eastern / 4 pm GMT for an exciting Guided Virtual Adventure about VR Storytelling! We are delighted to welcome Helen Lundström Erwin as our guide. This adventure will be hosted by Amany Alkhayat in Engage VR. The Engage event code is 2a0K6. The code contains a zero, not the letter O.  If you are new to Engage, you can create an Engage account here: https://engagevr.io/download-engage/   Helen Lundström Erwin is recognized as the only novelist with a VR World based on a setting in their own novel. Her historical novel Sour Milk in Sheep’s Wool not only explores the early reproductive rights and suffrage movements but also inspired her VR World, The Foremothers Café. This VR Café takes you back in time to Lund, Sweden in 1918. Just like in the story, it serves as a community space for women, where Helen hosts discussions and cultural events, extending the themes of her writing into a dynamic, interactive environment.   Her latest work, The Lure of Water and Wood, marks her foray into historical fantasy, drawing from real sorcery trials in 17th and 18th century Sweden, blending meticulous research with imaginative storytelling. Helen’s first novel, James’ Journey, further showcases her ability to weave deep historical insights into compelling narratives, portraying the transformative journey of a man from a pro-slavery upbringing to a conductor on the Underground Railroad.   Helen has created artwork for The Foremothers Café and illustrated her Children's Book, Officer Helga Hedgehog Meets the New Neighbors.   She is an active member of the Historical Novel Society-New York Chapter and of XR Women. She was honored with a 2021 (SWEA) Mona Johnson - New York Scholarship, and received a grant from The Puffin Foundation. The Foremothers Café has been nominated for Auggie Awards for Best Social Impact two years in a row, and Helen was nominated for an XR Women Award in the Trailblazing Category in 2023. Helen now serves as Secretary of the Board of SWEA (Swedish Women's Educational Association.)

University student use of the iLRN Virtual Campus XR groups meet for presentations & exploration iLRN Volunteers starting Campus Co-design - now building a spooky Halloween party! Beginning construction of iLRN's Foundations Research Library on campus on the immersive learning principles of Computer Science, Games, & the Learning Sciences Our new iLRN Frame VR Campus opened to attendees of the 10th annual iLRN Conference last June 2024. Of the collection of 25 Frame buildings on the new campus, most iLRN2024 activity took place on the dual Frame campus "hub" - that is, our Orange and Blue Exhibit Halls, respectively - where presenters from BOTH online and face-to-face (Scotland) conference venues had opportunity to place a poster and interact with visitors. Note that both virtual campus halls are always open to iLRN members and these fantastic immersive learning posters are still there for your perusal!
Indeed, the campus is crawling with network activity, as various initiatives sprout up in Teaching/Learning, UX/Design, and Research/Knowledge Sharing! 
A few iLRN Frame VR Campus Highlights: 

Summer '24, Doug Wilson invited his Learning, Design, and Technology students at George Mason University to meet regularly in our iLRN Student Center and explore the network co-designed FrameVR Campus. Dr. Wilson and  iLRN campus staff offered the use of Frame VR's custom permissions to allow students an opportunity to pitch ideas, co-create and try out the campus' possibility spaces. > > > >

Wilson says, "FrameVR and the iLRN Student Center make great tools and provide quintessential presence to engage students on a range of topics  in the instructional design space. A nimble system, graduate students swiftly got up to speed with FrameVR's easy to use tools and took part in compelling direct instruction as well as sensory experiences.  Richter's presentation on the UN Sustainable Development Goals allowed students to align their creative design projects in XR with the iLRN conference theme Tech 4 Good; this introduced a high level of engagement for students who could then see their work from a global perspective and design with the greater good in mind.  One student even chose to build a new virtual office for me in Frame VR as her design project! The authentic learning experiences possible in Frame VR and the iLRN Student Center underscored teaching and learning approaches illuminated in learning in activity (Engstrom, 2022),  Community of Inquiry (Garrison , 2017) and situated learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991).    Perhaps the most intriguing piece happened this fall at the Immersive Technology Conference on the George Mason University Arlington Campus. I setup a 60” flat screen connected to my MacBook Pro and invited students from as far away as Los Angeles to pop into Frame VR ILRN Student Center and interact live with the audience during my poster session. Student avatars in VR interacted live and face-to-face with people viewing on the big screen, a portal and intersection of the virtual and physical worlds! That was an engaging and unique experience and all with no headsets or goggles.  FrameVR lowers the barriers to entry, and the global iLRN Student Center was the space! I can’t thank you and iLRN enough for making this all possible!  
The Immersive Learning Research Network's campus is open to university member/partners in myriad different ways!
game jams or hackathons research talks  independent student projects pedagogical or computer science design experiments international co-lab spaces In other campus activity, Randall Rode brought the EduCAUSE XR Community Group to the iLRN campus in August for exploration and discussion in the Circle of Scholars (CoS) amphitheater.  Dr. Rode is presently supporting iLRN to co-develop our Community of Scholars in Immersive Learning, including public and members-only meetings in the CoS amphitheater.
 
> > > > > Bring YOUR immersive experience design group or team to the iLRN Campus for exploration or meeting! 

Now that fall semester has arrived and universities are well underway with courses, the campus has picked up our activity and the iLRN Volunteers are more systematically managing our co-creations and other events on campus. They use our iLRN General Discord Server as a means of collaborating, working across time zones, skill sets, and campus design requests but they're ALWAYS doing something fun too and our twice-a-month meetings are always eye-opening and full of laughter and connections.
Lately, we've been working on turning a number of our campus buildings into our "HAUNTED VIRTUAL CAMPUS" - now in our 5th year!
(so I guess it's a tradition?). . . . 

We're putting up some cryptic AI bots who speak of VR like a kooky steampunk character and grumpily invite you to check out other haunted spaces and leave them alone to their alarming experiments... 

and finally, our lead iLRN Campus Volunteer Sarah Barker has been building a prototype Frame VR Research Library in our House 1, the "trunk" of our Knowledge Tree representing the BIG THREE disciplines that fundamentally contribute to hiqh quality Immersive Learning experiences: (1) Computer Science, (2) UX/Game Design and (3) The Learning Sciences. We are so excited of the possibilities of Sarah's contribution (check out her work on our Affiliate Partner's XR Women's Frame VR space!) and look to similarly build out 12 applied areas in Frames across our campus: 
dddd
~ Do YOU have an idea on how you'd like to make use of our iLRN Virtual Campus?
iLRNetwork Members, contact us for arranging a tour and exploring the possibilities TODAY! 

The Immersive Learning Research Network is happy to announce our newest member of our Board of Directors! Randall will be stepping in as iLRN's Membership Director to lead in the growth of our association of immersive learning professionals. Rode is an innovator with educational uses of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and other extended reality (XR) technologies in support of research and teaching activities, with a particular emphasis on medicine and health.  His is a prominent voice in uses of XR in higher education and medical settings, leading conversations and explorations with peer institutions and industry XR developers, and he's a frequent speaker at higher-education conferences on the topic of XR, an organizer of XR workshops for higher education institutions and facilitator of the Educause higher education Extended Reality(XR) in Education community forum.  

Instructional design is a strong part of Randy's professional background, and an important part of his approach to serving the students and the faculty he supports.  He is currently working with several departments at Southern Connecticut State University on XR initiatives including workforce training workshops and a computer science XR development elective.  Previous work includes leading the Blended Reality applied research project at Yale, managing the implementation of an AR based anatomy teaching application for the Yale School of Medicine and serving as an instructor/designer for online user-centered design curriculum at Quinnipiac University. 
iLRN is proud to offer a seat at our board table for Randy's expert contributions and leadership to the emerging field of Immersive Learning!
To connect with Director Rode and congratulate him on his new role for iLRN, please visit https://linkedin.com/in/randallrode for further details.

Academic Submission Deadline Extended to October 25th!
iLRN2025 invites you to submit your research to the 11th International Conference on Immersive Learning, themed around Multimodal Literacies in Immersive Learning Environments. Join global experts in exploring how immersive technologies like XR, AI, and generative AI are reshaping education and learning. Whether you’re focused on ethics, pedagogy, or the cutting-edge applications of technology, this is the platform to share your insights. 
Conference dates: June 15-19, 2025, in Chicago and online. 
https://www.immersivelrn.org/ilrn2025/home/

The Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN) announces that Prof. Leonel Morgado has stepped down from his position on the Board of Directors, effective at the conclusion of our recent conference. Prof. Morgado has been a foundational member of iLRN for the past decade and has served on the Board of Directors for five and a half years, contributing significantly to our growth and success.
In his former roles as Vice-President and Director for Scientific Quality, Prof. Morgado led the successful inclusion of the annual iLRN conference in the CORE rankings and worked continuously with conference organizers to sustain and improve the scientific quality while maintaining the community and welcoming spirit of our event and organization. His contributions to the Knowledge Tree are enabling immersive learning researchers to employ solid theoretical grounding, replicable methods, and common terminology to further develop the field. 
While he is stepping down from the board, Prof. Morgado will continue to play an active role within iLRN as a member of the Steering Committee, Circle of Scholars, and Knowledge Tree. He will remain involved helping to enhance the global relevance of our field.
"I believe iLRN is poised to become a major reference organization in immersive learning research and practice," said Prof. Morgado. "By stepping down, I hope to open opportunities for other researchers to take on this role and bring new energy and ideas to our community."
We are grateful for Prof. Morgado's unwavering dedication and are delighted that he will continue to contribute to iLRN's mission. Please join us in thanking him for his service and in looking forward to his ongoing involvement.
iLRN remains strongly committed to Scientific Quality as a key value and pursuit for the iLRN community and with Prof. Morgado’s help are seeking a new Director to join our board to continue innovative and capacity building for the immersive learning sciences.

Mixed Reality combines real-world and computer-generated images, recently highlighted by the Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3. This talk explores apps and games developed for mixed reality headsets. Using a browser or VR headset and the Spatial platform, your avatar walks around models, displays, and videos on both the underlying concepts and how they have been used in various application types such as education, stories, puzzles, FPS, music, and more.   Our guest presenter Mark Jeffcock is a semi-retired software architect interested in virtual reality. For the last 4 years, Mark has been teaching remotely in virtual reality on various subjects: such as virtual world building, Unity, VR hardware, game-building, mixed reality development, photogrammetry, and gaussian splatting.   Hosted by Amany Alkhayat, this Guided Virtual Adventure will be held on Thursday, September 26 at 8 am Pacific, 11 am Eastern, and 3 pm UK time.   This session will be hosted in Spatial. Please go to this link at the time of the session:  https://www.spatial.io/s/MR-Concepts-64c26f8dcac2456ee44f68b2?share=3756115269191298766   Spatial.io supports web browser access, most VR headsets (though their stores), and mobile devices. See Download Spatial.io for specifics. Be aware that through the web browser access (Firefox recommended, then Chrome, then Edge), you will see your avatar in a second person perspective. If your OS and mouse support it, use the scroll wheel to zoom in for a first person experience. The VR perspective is first person.

The Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN) is pleased to announce the Call for Proposals for its 2025 conference, centered around the theme "Reading the World: Immersive Learning & Multimodal Literacies."

The submission deadline is October 1, 2024.
For more information, go to https://www.immersivelrn.org/ilrn2025/call-for-papers/

We are happy to announce a Call for Papers for a special issue in the journal "Computers & Education: X Reality", which is organized with iLRN and invites selected papers submitted to and presented at the 9th and 10th iLRN conferences to submit extended versions. However, submissions from the academic community are welcomed, regardless of whether they were part of the iLRN conferences.
Overview
The integration of immersive technologies—such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR)—into educational environments has shown significant potential to transform the learning experience. However, the rapid adoption of these technologies has outpaced the development of comprehensive, evidence-based frameworks that guide their practical implementation and evaluation in diverse educational contexts. 
Immersive Learning is emerging from multi-disciplinary research in Computer Science, Game Design, UX, the Learning Sciences, and other fields that apply Immersive Learning in context. This special issue of Computers & Education: X Reality aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice in immersive learning by bringing together research that explores theoretical foundations and builds robust frameworks grounded in empirical evidence. We seek contributions that provide insights into how immersive technologies can be systematically integrated into educational settings to enhance learning outcomes, showing effective practices in immersive learning, addressing educational challenges and the technical affordances of tools and frameworks that are both scalable and sustainable.
This special issue is organized with the Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN). Selected papers submitted to and presented at the 9th and 10th annual International Conferences will be invited to submit extended versions to this Special Issue. Extended versions of papers submitted to the iLRN Conference must contain about 50% new material, and the title must clearly and unmistakably differ from the title of the article presented at the conference.
Likewise, we welcome submissions from the academic community, regardless of whether they were part of the iLRN conferences.
Topics of Interest
This special issue invites scholars, practitioners, and technologists to contribute to the evolving landscape of immersive learning by providing research that advances theoretical understanding and offers practical, evidence-based solutions for educators worldwide.
We invite high-quality, original research articles, case studies, and review papers that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:
Theoretical Foundations
Conceptual models and frameworks for immersive learning. Cognitive, social, and emotional theories underlying immersive learning environments. Ethical considerations and inclusivity in immersive learning. Practical Applications
Case studies showcasing the integration of immersive technologies in various educational settings. Design and development of immersive learning environments. Best practices for implementing VR/AR/MR in classrooms, labs, and remote learning contexts. Evidence-Based Frameworks
Empirical studies evaluating the effectiveness of immersive learning tools and environments. Longitudinal studies on the impact of immersive learning on student engagement, motivation, and outcomes. Frameworks for assessing and improving the accessibility and usability of immersive learning technologies. Technological Innovations
Emerging tools and platforms for immersive learning. Interdisciplinary approaches to enhancing immersive learning experiences. Future trends and challenges in the adoption of XR technologies in education. Submission Guidelines
Authors are invited to submit original manuscripts that have not been previously published and are not currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. We expect final articles, not abstracts. All submissions will undergo a rigorous peer-review process. Manuscripts should be prepared according to the journal's standard guidelines and submitted through the Computers & Education: X Reality online submission system: Editorial Manager®.
Please refer to the Guide for Authors to prepare the manuscript and select the article type “VSI: Immersive Learning" when submitting your manuscript online.
Important Dates
Manuscript Submission Deadline: October 17, 2024
Editorial Notification Deadline: January 31, 2025
Guest Editors
Anasol Peña-Rios, BT Group, UK
Daphne Economou, University of Westminster, UK
Daniela Pedrosa, Polytechnic Institute of Santarém, Portugal
Jule Krüger, University of Potsdam, Germany
Dennis Beck, University of Arkansas, USA
Leonel Morgado, Universidade Aberta & INESC TEC, Portugal
Contact Information
Please contact the guest editors at publications@immersivelrn.org for inquiries regarding this special issue.
We look forward to receiving your contributions to this essential and timely special issue.
You can also find the full Call for Papers here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/computers-and-education-x-reality/about/call-for-papers#immersive-learning-from-theory-to-practice-building-evidence-based-frameworks