Ringling College Partners with Creative Studio for VR Program

woman using vr headset

As part of a new virtual reality degree program, Ringling College of Art and Design is teaming up with creative studio Flight School to give students real-world experience in VR game development.

Ringling College launched its Bachelor of Fine Arts program in Virtual Reality Development in fall 2018 with input from Brandon Oldenburg, co-founder of Flight School as well as a graduate of the college and a member of its Board of Trustees. A major component of the program is the opportunity for students to collaborate with Flight School to create a "playable" game in VR, according to a news announcement. "The students receive hands-on experience designing for virtual reality and learn about the production of VR assets," the announcement said, while "the studio gets the fresh thinking and design skills of the students to create a beautiful end product."

This year, students studying Game Art have been working with Flight School to create a VR game that will be introduced at SXSW 2019, while students in Business of Art and Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, and Motion Design are working to brand and market the game, the announcement added.

"Working with professionals holds our students to professional standards — and to professional expectations and parameters," said Morgan Woolverton, interim department head for Virtual Reality Development and Game Art, in a statement. "When you are a student, you are often only responsible to your own creative vision, but opportunities like this teach students to find their voice, to find their creative solution within an existing client framework. And that is what it takes to be a great creative."

"In addition to giving students real-world experience in the VR field, the partnership will also help us test our VR course offerings and inform the VR curriculum as we pioneer the world's first Virtual Reality Development major," added Larry Thompson, president of Ringling College.

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • SXSW EDU

    Explore the Future of AI in Higher Ed at SXSW EDU 2025

    This March 3-6 in Austin, TX, the SXSW EDU Conference & Festival celebrates its 15th year of exploring education's most critical issues and providing a forum for creativity, innovation, and expression.

  • man working on laptop outdoors

    Digital Leadership Must-Haves for 2025: A CDO's Picks

    Now that he's more than a year and a half into his chief digital officer role at NJIT, we've asked Ed Wozencroft to reflect on his areas of concentration: What work must digital leaders "own" in 2025?

  • From Fire TV to Signage Stick: University of Utah's Digital Signage Evolution

    Jake Sorensen, who oversees sponsorship and advertising and Student Media in Auxiliary Business Development at the University of Utah, has navigated the digital signage landscape for nearly 15 years. He was managing hundreds of devices on campus that were incompatible with digital signage requirements and needed a solution that was reliable and lowered labor costs. The Amazon Signage Stick, specifically engineered for digital signage applications, gave him the stability and design functionality the University of Utah needed, along with the assurance of long-term support.

  • digital artwork of glowing, interconnected neural-like shapes on a gradient background of deep blue and vibrant purple

    Google Announces Upgrade to Flagship Gemini AI Platform, Enhancing Multimodal Capabilities

    Google has launched Gemini 2.0, designed to empower enterprise users and developers with advanced multimodal capabilities and enhanced performance.