Using virtual reality in the classroom to teach historic events

By Zyheim Bell

While in the freshman year of his undergraduate degree, Associate Political Science Professor Adam McMahon witnessed the frightening events of 9/11 alongside millions of American onlookers. McMahon said he can recall the memory like it was just yesterday. 

In McMahon’s classrooms, however, he noticed students did not have the same connection to the event, and through the implementation of virtual reality, he sought to change that.

Utilizing VR, McMahon says he exposes his students to both a personal account of 9/11 paired with a traditional reading to stimulate student interest. While teaching, he observed that for most students, their first interactions with 9/11 were on an anniversary where the older people in their lives, like family members and teachers, would share their own experiences, leaving gaps for students about the event.

“One of the ways that I could bridge that gap … where students didn’t know about what happened was using this video,” McMahon said.

Students were assigned to watch “Surviving 9/11: 27 Hours Under the Rubble,” a story detailing the events through the eyes of Genelle Guzman-McMillan, a victim recovered from the rubble of the Twin Towers.

“One of the things I really like is it shows the World Trade Center site before the terrorist attacks,” McMahon said, explaining why he chose the perspective of Guzman-McMillan. “And then it shows the after, and so when you’re standing there in the virtual reality scenario, you can kind of look around and see how big it is.”

Dean of the Library Sharon Whitfield, who brought the use of VR to McMahon’s attention, said that she found it important that students were given the chance to experience 9/11 through a survivor, and presented the idea of implementing VR to McMahon.

“[McMahon] is someone who looks at technology like, how is this going to enhance my pedagogy,” Whitfield said.

Though he is all for implementing new technology into his classroom, McMahon is aware of the gimmick effect that VR poses.

“Right now the technology is kind of novel. We’re sort of playing around with it as scholars, as teachers, to see what works with it and what doesn’t,” he said.

 To avoid making the VR a gimmick, McMahon breaks down the assignment into three purposes according to a sample assignment: create a baseline of knowledge for 9/11, provide stories of the terrorist attack lost to time and provide a way to assess student writing levels.

“I try to balance any kind of new technology or anything that is untried with something that is tried and true like a traditional reading,” McMahon said.

McMahon makes the point that an understanding of the 9/11 attack from all levels is a necessary step for students to be able to make the connection between the events and the “apparatus” or arms of government created during the Bush presidency – now being employed during President Donald Trump’s second term.

In McMahon’s article published Sept. 11, 2025, “Teaching Sept. 11 Using Virtual Reality” for Inside Higher Education, he wrote, “Those who remember the aftermath of the attacks can weigh the policy choices against the demands of the public, motivated as they were by uncertainty and a fear of additional attacks.”