Now It Gets Interactive: Online Teaching with the ENGAGE.EU Virtual Campus

Imagine an online class where students can move freely through a shared space, talk to each other, and collaborate on group tasks. This is exactly what online teaching often lacks most: meaningful interaction.

A meeting in a virtual environment can be far more than a video conference. Using avatars, teachers and students navigate a digital learning space, meet other participants, exchange ideas and solve tasks together. Free from the constraints of static video tiles, an immersive form of attention and presence emerges – opening up entirely new possibilities for teaching.

The ENGAGE.EU Virtual Campus is a three-dimensional immersive learning environment developed under the lead of the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) in cooperation with ENGAGE.EU. Petra Oberhuemer, Head of Digital Teaching Services at WU and project lead for the Virtual Campus, Mathias Dunst-Janko, responsible for the design and development of the environment, and Andrea Ghoneim together with colleagues from Digital Teaching Services provide technical support and pedagogical guidance. The team assists teaching staff in developing and implementing tailored teaching scenarios.

From Escape Rooms to Project Presentations

One example has already been successfully implemented within the Joint Certificate Programme in Global Sustainability Management in the form of a virtual escape room.

A small group of students enters a virtual room. The door is locked. They can only proceed to the next room by solving a subject-related task. Each successful solution provides a numerical code that allows the group to progress step by step.

This playful approach helps align students’ knowledge levels, strengthens team building, and motivates participants through small successes.

Further teaching scenarios include:

• Treasure hunts introducing course structure and key concepts
• Group work in acoustically separated areas comparable to breakout rooms
• Interactive icebreakers for networking and team formation
• Collaborative scenarios including project presentations
• Integration of whiteboards, posters or galleries 

At WU, a comparable Virtual Campus environment is already being used to invite external experts from industry to attend student project presentations.

Activity Instead of Passive Content Consumption 

“The strength of the Virtual Campus lies in synchronous interaction. Teachers and students meet there for shared activities,” explains Andrea Ghoneim. This distinguishes the Virtual Campus from traditional learning management systems such as Moodle or ILIAS. These systems are primarily designed for asynchronous formats: teachers provide materials and students work on them at a different time. In the Virtual Campus, the focus is on immersive activities.

The added value is also evident when compared with web conferencing tools such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. “When using Zoom, the temptation to do something else at the same time is quite high,” says Petra Oberhuemer. “The real benefit of the Virtual Campus becomes clear when the didactic setting requires students to actively engage.”

The platform can be integrated into existing courses with minimal effort. Individual sessions can be held in the Virtual Campus without redesigning the entire course. A shared 24/7 area is available to all users, and existing rooms can easily be adapted to specific teaching needs.

Easy Access and Individual Support

The Virtual Campus includes an open 24/7 area that can be explored after a short registration process. Users can meet there, visit an exhibition presenting the ENGAGE.EU partner universities, and discover concrete use cases. The WU support team also supports teachers in creating dedicated rooms for specific teaching scenarios. After a short introduction, it is also possible to design rooms independently.

Technically, the Virtual Campus is operated in cooperation with the German provider TriCAT. The platform is ISO 27001 certified, the international standard for information security management systems. The servers are located in Germany, ensuring full compliance with data protection requirements.

The Virtual Campus is accessible via a web browser as well as through VR headsets. It is available free of charge to all teachers and students of the ten partner universities of the alliance: https://www.wu.ac.at/en/engageeu-virtualcampus

Until the end of March 2026, Mathias Dunst-Janko will be present in the 24/7 area every Wednesday from 10:00 to 11:00 to answer questions.

If you would like to explore the Virtual Campus or discuss a potential teaching scenario, please contact the project team at: infomail-engage-virtualcampus.eu

Staff Training

Would you like to get to know the Virtual Campus?

As part of the ENGAGE.EU Staff Training programme, the workshop
“Virtual Mobilities and Much More: Communicate and Collaborate in ENGAGE.EU’s Virtual Campus”
will take place on 10 and 17 April from 13:00 to 15:00.

Further information:
https://www.wu.ac.at/engageeu-virtualcampus/workshop-virtual-mobilities