About 150 juniors and seniors at six Minnesota school organizations are using virtual-reality headsets this fall to wire circuits, diagnose faults and explore historical architecture from their high school campuses. Dunwoody College of Technology's new Dunwoody Immersive program is designed to let students earn free college credit in technical fields through Minnesota's dual-enrollment system, including courses that normally require specialized laboratory space.
Dunwoody introduced the program to bring virtual-reality instruction into high school classrooms, according to Twin Cities Business. Each enrolled student receives a headset that recreates parts of a laboratory experience. The courses combine classroom instruction and lab assignments, with students working through the material at their own pace, the outlet reports.
Behind the software is a partnership with game developer Schell Games, which built eight mixed-reality laboratory modules for Meta Quest 3 and 3S headsets. According to Schell Games, the modules rely on native hand-tracking rather than handheld motion controllers, so students manipulate virtual circuit components with their own hands. The Meta Horizon Store lists the resulting app, Immersive Labs: DC Circuits, which lets students run voltage tests, measure resistance, and diagnose simulated circuit faults in what the store describes as a risk-free environment.
Two Courses, Two Very Different Career Paths
The pilot's introductory offerings are ELTT1101 DC Circuit Fundamentals, worth four college credits, and ARTS1500 Early Global Architecture, worth three credits. Both run for 14 to 16 weeks through Canvas alongside assignments completed with the headset, according to XRHQ. Twin Cities Business reports that the circuits course connects to automotive technology, electrical work and advanced manufacturing, while the architecture course points toward architecture, drafting and construction. In the circuits course, students wire circuits, diagnose simulated failures and apply Ohm's law using virtual tools and materials.
Early Global Architecture takes a different tack entirely, letting students explore more than 150 historical heritage sites worldwide through 3D models and spatial animations, including digital reconstructions of Brunelleschi's dome in Florence and the Plan of St. Gall, XRHQ reports. Twin Cities Business adds that students also take virtual field trips to ancient Egypt and Renaissance Europe as part of the coursework. Both courses include career exploration sessions with current trades practitioners, per the outlet's reporting.
A Financial Fix for School Districts
The virtual, on-campus model is intended to expand access to dual-enrollment courses for high school students. Stallman also told Twin Cities Business that trades careers offer lucrative pay and high job satisfaction — an argument aimed at students who might otherwise overlook the field.
Minnesota's Postsecondary Enrollment Options program allows high school students to take college courses without tuition while earning both high school and college credit under Minn. Stat. § 124D.09. Twin Cities Business reports that PSEO courses have been available online, while skilled-trades offerings have faced the additional obstacle of high schools lacking physical labs. Dunwoody Immersive is intended to address that laboratory-access problem without requiring students to travel to a college campus.
Four Districts, One Cohort, Big Ambitions
The first year includes four public school districts—Eden Prairie, Wayzata, Hermantown and White Bear Lake—along with Edina Virtual Pathway and Avalon School, for six participating school organizations overall, according to Twin Cities Business. Cindy Olson, Dunwoody's vice president of enrollment management, and Brad Hosack, the program's chief operating officer, are involved in running the effort, the outlet reports. Dunwoody says it hopes to help students transfer earned credits to nearby schools and plans to add districts and consider additional courses.
What the program does—and does not yet establish
Minnesota is developing its broader dual-enrollment policy at the same time. The Minnesota P-20 Education Partnership says the state was selected in December 2024 as one of seven states in the College in High School Alliance's national "Next Phase of Dual Enrollment Policy" cohort. The Minnesota Office of Higher Education says the effort includes developing a statewide vision and increasing participation and success among rural and BIPOC students. A regional study from the Institute of Education Sciences' Regional Educational Laboratory Central found that rural students had less access to dual enrollment than town and suburban students, although the study covered REL Central states rather than Minnesota specifically. The available program descriptions do not report a comparison of VR instruction with physical laboratory instruction or specify a statewide rule guaranteeing that Dunwoody credits will transfer to every college. Dunwoody says it intends to help students transfer their credits, but policies may differ by institution. The University of Minnesota Twin Cities cautions that grades earned through its PSEO program remain on a student's university transcript and can affect college admission, a reminder that dual-enrollment credits carry academic consequences as well as potential benefits.
The push arrives amid a workforce crunch that has alarmed labor economists nationally. U.S. Department of Education projections reported in 2026 indicate that for every five workers retiring from manufacturing, construction, and other skilled trades, only two replacements are entering the workforce, threatening to leave 2.1 million skilled trades jobs unfilled nationwide by 2030, according to a release carried by PR Newswire. Twin Cities Business notes that construction companies, manufacturers, and other trades employers currently have many open positions, and Dunwoody Immersive is explicitly framed as one attempt to help employers fill those vacancies.
A College With Momentum
Founded in 1914, Dunwoody College of Technology is the Upper Midwest's only private, non-profit technical college, having served more than 250,000 students throughout its history, according to Cause IQ. The college's departmental reports show several of its trade programs — including robotics, automotive technology, and engineering — achieving graduate job placement rates between 95% and 100%, with 2019–2020 graduates receiving an average of 13.7 job inquiries each. That track record has coincided with a 43% overall enrollment expansion over a decade, from 1,070 students in 2014 to 1,534 students in fall 2024, a growth trend PR Newswire attributed to escalating student interest in skilled trades and online flexibility.
Whether virtual skill-building in a headset translates into physical trade apprenticeships remains an open question as the first cohort completes its coursework. The program's immediate test is whether schools can use a shared digital laboratory to make technical dual enrollment available where a physical lab is not.
