In July 2020, the VRO team held a first set of interviews with schoolteachers and museum curators.

The VRO is intended to be an educational resource for students, teachers, and the public. These interviews offer the team an opportunity to hear first-hand from those involved in teaching ancient history and curating museum exhibitions: how do they think that VR, and specifically the VRO, could enhance their work?

Digital content and delivery are more important than ever due to Covid-19. The teachers we interviewed clearly felt that the VRO could be embedded within existing practice. They explained how the VRO could fill gaps in existing resource lists and support teaching/learning about the ancient world at all levels. They also told us how the use of VR could encourage innovative pedagogical practices and emphasised the VRO’s potential for interactivity and emotional connection to characters in the ancient world.

The museum curators highlighted how the VRO might enable important connections between antiquity and modernity to be made to audiences. They saw it as an experience, not an exhibit, which could create a vivid and authentic image of the past that, through ‘spontaneous’ storytelling and set design, would raise questions about broader human nature and interaction.

The team would like to thank all those who participated in the first set of user interviews. The team is looking forward to hosting further interviews as we develop the VRO. Do get in touch if you would like to be involved: esther.eidinow@bristol.ac.uk.