[It would have been even more useful if this essay from Inside Higher Ed had been published prior to this year’s anniversary of the September 11, 2001 events, but it both describes some of the benefits of incorporating presence experiences into college-level courses and offers thoughtful advice about how to most effectively do so. –Matthew]

[Image: Credit: Porter Gifford/Corbis Historical via Getty Images]

Teaching Sept. 11 Using Virtual Reality

Seeking a way to convey the import of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to students too young to remember them, Adam M. McMahon writes that he turned to virtual reality.

By Adam M. McMahon, an associate professor of political science at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J. His next book project, American Extremist, traces the development of the Department of Homeland Security from Sept. 11 to Jan. 6.
September 11, 2025

In the days following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, a common refrain heard among Americans was that we would “never forget” what happened. As a college freshman, I never imagined that these events would guide my life, from volunteering for the Red Cross in New York City in October 2001 to teaching homeland security as a professor more than 20 years later.

Today, my students have no living memory of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, even as the legacy of that day continues to fundamentally shape the country they are living in.

As the second Trump administration uses the apparatuses of the state, especially the Department of Homeland Security, to implement its controversial policy objectives, it’s important for students to understand that the decisions to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as to create the DHS, were policy choices by the George W. Bush administration in the early 2000s. It did not have to be this way. One could imagine an alternative timeline in which the United States chose not to engage in wars and instead sought to eliminate the underlying causes of terrorism.

Certainly, those who remember the aftermath of the attacks can weigh the policy choices against the demands of the public, motivated as they were by uncertainty and a fear of additional attacks. Members of Gen Z might not understand this feeling because, for them, it is history. But while hindsight is 20-20, to be able to argue counterfactuals requires rigorous analysis and asking probing questions in the classroom. When it comes to preserving a nation’s security, engaging in such exercises is not futile; it helps leaders hone their decisions and think about unintended consequences of their actions that could undermine their objectives.

With these pedagogical goals in mind, I have struggled for years with how to convey the gravity of the terrorist attacks to students who did not witness them firsthand. And I am happy to report I have found success using virtual reality in the classroom.

My institution, Rider University, received funding to purchase virtual reality headsets through the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Working with a librarian, I was able to devise a short reflection assignment with the goal of (1) piquing student interest in the topic of homeland security by emphasizing the importance of the terrorist attacks, (2) assessing their writing through a low-stakes reflection assignment and (3) encouraging students to complete their traditional readings by demonstrating the significance of what happened on the lives of ordinary people.

I assign Surviving 9/11: 27 Hours Under the Rubble, a short documentary made by TARGO for use with a VR headset that follows the story of Genelle Guzman-McMillan, the last of only a small number of people to be pulled from the rubble at the World Trade Center. In the video, the viewer is able to grasp the immensity of the destruction by comparing the World Trade Center compound as it looked before the attacks and 20 years later.

Guzman-McMillan’s story is one that is relatable to many people: On the day of the attacks, she commuted to work and went about her day in the office. You get to experience what it looked like on her floor of the WTC, the eerie shadows cast by office paperwork flying through the air after the first plane hit and the daunting task of descending the staircase in the dark in an effort to flee before the building collapsed. All this real-life danger is contrasted with the peaceful life she was able to maintain after being miraculously freed from the wreckage. As she returns to the memorial for the first time since the attacks, we are able to share the emotional weight of personally recovering from something so immense.

For instructors, I recommend pairing the video with a reading assignment to help provide context to the class, such as the descriptive introductory chapter from the “9/11 Commission Report” or Richard A. Posner’s dissent to the report published in The New York Times in 2004. In the future, I may assign excerpts from Donald Kettl’s System Under Stress, given its succinct and easily accessible assessment of the steps taken after the terrorist attacks to counter additional terrorism in the United States, although the author refrains from being overly critical of President Bush’s actions.

Students are required to reserve a time to use the VR headsets in the library to view the video, which also allows me to retrieve the names of students who checked out headsets to assure completion of the assignment. I pair the readings and video with a low-stakes writing assignment, asking everyone in the class to reflect on what they saw. I typically include a few questions on a handout to help generate ideas. Students are required to follow directions on formatting and length, but other than that it is an open-ended assignment. By pairing the video with a critical reading, it permits students to be critical themselves if they choose to do so.

There are a number of issues that must be considered before deploying such an assignment. First and foremost, the goal is not to traumatize students. Living in the New York metro area, I have come across a number of people who had either a family member or a friend of the family killed in the attacks. I was careful in my selection of what I assigned, because it did not erase the violence that happened, but it also did not display gratuitous visuals.

Another challenge is that while virtual reality technology continues to improve, it does not work well for everyone. A small handful of my students (one or two) report vision problems or headaches when using the headsets, so it is imperative to either have a non-VR copy of the media or an alternative assignment ready to go for those who may not be able to view the video.

At a time when innovative technology can make educating college-age students more challenging, as we see with the proliferation of large language models, VR is a format that has helped me achieve course learning goals while stimulating student interest in a critically important subject. In the area of homeland security, the technology can help students bear witness while facilitating critical analysis of the mistakes of the Bush administration in the pursuit of the War on Terror that followed the attacks. This is much needed as Trump now expansively uses the apparatuses of the homeland security state to accomplish his policy goals.