Virtual Is the New Reality for M.B.A. Students

M.B.A. students at Dartmouth College took a stroll one day this spring to a corner store in Tamil Nadu, India, to observe local shopping habits. Motorcycles whizzed by and roosters crowed—that is, until the virtual-reality headsets came off. 

In a typical year, these students would have traveled to India or another country as part of their coursework. Or they might have discussed the scenario in a classroom case study at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. Instead, they were witnessing the region’s economic life up close—while actually thousands of miles away—to better understand how to develop products and services for that market.

More business schools are venturing into virtual reality, using video delivered via headsets to immerse students in far-flung locales. The pandemic forced many M.B.A. programs to curtail international travel just as VR technology took off and headsets proliferated. Now, early experiments such as Dartmouth’s are prompting more schools to explore the technology, both in classes and as part of the overall student experience.    

This summer, for instance, M.B.A. students at Emory University will virtually tour Delta Air Lines ‘ massive hangars to learn how operational complexity and culture affect business performance. Temple University students have logged into virtual-reality classes on financial technology, blockchain and digital disruption, seeing classmates and their professor recreated in avatars. Elsewhere, such as Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, school leaders say they are considering other ways to use VR, such as teaching negotiating skills.

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