Julia Boboc, a fourth-year journalism student at the University of Oregon, recently published a feature highlighting how extended reality (XR) is transforming careers in communication. Her story showcased the work of Professor Danny Pimentel and the Oregon Reality Lab, where students are building immersive projects that range from environmental storytelling to award-winning augmented reality exhibits. Reading about this work offers a glimpse into the future of journalism, advertising, and media industries. But it also raises an urgent question for us here at Cal State San Bernardino: are we preparing our own students for that future?
Extended reality is not one technology but a spectrum that includes augmented reality, mixed reality, and virtual reality. Augmented reality overlays digital images on the real world, such as Snapchat filters or the yellow first-down line on a football field. Mixed reality allows digital objects to interact with physical environments, like placing a holographic couch in your living room that stays in place as you move around. Virtual reality goes further, immersing users in entirely computer-generated environments through headsets. Together, these tools are reshaping how stories are told by closing the gap between audiences and issues, creating a sense of presence and urgency that traditional media cannot.
For example, Professor Pimentel’s team designed an AR experience that let festivalgoers hold a baby sea turtle in the palm of their hand, helping them understand the dangers hatchlings face in the wild. This is storytelling that evokes empathy and action. His work shows how XR has the potential to make distant problems feel immediate and personal, which is particularly powerful when addressing global challenges like climate change.
This kind of innovation is not just happening elsewhere. At CSUSB, the Extended Reality for Learning (xREAL) Lab already brings together faculty, students, staff, and community partners to integrate XR into research and teaching. The lab supports everything from building XR-enhanced classroom tools to helping faculty design immersive projects that combine technology with human creativity. Students are not only able to observe these projects but can also join them, gaining hands-on experience and learning how XR can be used for both storytelling and problem-solving.
Faculty at CSUSB are also applying XR to pressing global issues. Communication Professor Ahlam Muhtaseb and her former student, Naim Abburadi, now a Ph.D. candidate at CU Boulder, are leading The Phoenix of Gaza XR, an immersive project documenting Palestinian life before and after the destruction following October 7, 2023. Using 360-degree video and 3D modeling, the project allows viewers to virtually walk through Gaza’s neighborhoods, weddings, cultural traditions, and historical landmarks, many of which no longer exist. More than a documentary, the project preserves memory, asserts cultural agency, and provides audiences with a visceral experience that no textbook or article could replicate.
For students in journalism, media studies, public relations, or advertising, XR is not a distant concept. Just as smartphones revolutionized communication in the last two decades, XR will become a standard tool in media and communication industries. Students who understand immersive media will enter the job market with a significant advantage. At the same time, XR poses challenges that cannot be ignored. Equipment and software remain expensive, raising concerns about equity and access. Privacy is another issue, since AR glasses and wearable devices may record everything around us. And misinformation could become even harder to detect in immersive environments, making the stakes of ethical storytelling even higher.
This is why CSUSB must not only provide students with opportunities to use XR but also to question it. Courses, workshops, and faculty-led projects should be spaces where students experiment with immersive storytelling while critically evaluating the broader implications of the technology. Our graduates should not only know how to design XR experiences but also how to think deeply about who benefits from them, who might be excluded, and what impact these tools will have on society.
Julia’s reporting from Oregon demonstrates what is possible when universities invest in immersive storytelling. Here at CSUSB, we already have the resources and talent to make XR a distinctive strength. The xREAL Lab and groundbreaking projects like The Phoenix of Gaza XR prove that we are part of this global shift. What we need now is broader student access, integration into the curriculum, and institutional support to make XR part of the toolkit for every communication student.
If we act now, Coyotes can lead the way in shaping how XR is used to tell stories that matter—locally, nationally, and globally. The future of communication will not only be about words on a page or videos on a screen. It will be about immersive experiences that allow audiences to step into another world. At CSUSB, that future is already being built. The question is whether we will embrace it fully.