Due to a technical issue, Over Coffee® is on a one-week hiatus. Please enjoy this reposting of one of our top episodes of 2022!

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“Move fast and break things,” says multiple award-winning computer science teacher Mark Suter.

He’s talking about the entrepreneurial approach he takes, as he guides his Elida High School classes through creating virtual-reality experiences.

Failure, Mark explains, is a key element in real-world problem solving.

And problem-solving is exactly what Mark and his students are doing, as they create VR training simulations for local businesses. An entrepreneurial approach to learning leads his students to collaborate, interact with others to learn what customers need, and adapt their creations accordingly.

According to Mark’s LinkedIn page, his class is also currently seeking a company that would like them to create some free training prototypes!

Part of the curriculum is Grit 9, a student-run business. Students can design VR simulations and websites. They also offer photo scanning and video work for local businesses.

In addition, Mark is an instructor at Bowling Green State University, where he is both a co-creator of their masters’ level course.

And if you’re a VR beginner who’d like to learn more, you can start today–free.

On his website, Mark offers beginner-friendly lessons in creating virtual reality with his “VR Basic Bytes” series! (These are both nonintimidating for beginners, and a lot of fun!)

Mark talked about his own learning journey with VR and his experiences in the classroom, shared some favorite resources and discussed a hilarious “failure” from which his class learned.

On this edition of Over Coffee® we cover:

• Mark’s recollections from his own learning journey, as he first started learning to create with VR and teach it to his students;

• How an artist or educator might put virtual reality to work in these areas;

• The partnership experience through which Mark took his game-design class with a local business as a client:

• The creative process involved;

• What’s involved in his beginner-friendly high school computer science course;

• Why Mark tells his students that “failure is highly encouraged”;

• A safeguard, for when students do make errors, so their work isn’t lost;

• Mark’s favorite resources for creating with VR;

• What to use, instead of code, to perform some basic functions in VR;

• How Mark introduces his students to coding;

• Several ways to share created VR apps;

• The hilarious “learning experience” mistake one of his students made;

• How Mark’s approach to preparing students to work in immersive tech has changed since he first started teaching;

• Why Mark wants students’ approach to learning (and his to teaching them!) to be “entrepreneurial”.