A new virtual reality training environment has been launched by Dublin City University (DCU).
The system allows trainee teachers to develop presentation and communication skills, by simulating the experience of classroom teaching in an immersive VR environment.
The system monitors and stores data on students' interactions such as movement, eye contact, hand gestures, and voice recordings.
This information can later be used to analyse and evaluate their performance and identify areas for improvement.
The immersive classroom environment has been used by students in DCU’s Institute of Education since early December, and it will be extended to students in the Faculty of Science and Health this month.
The project was led by Dr Peter Tiernan and Dr Alan Gorman in DCU’s Institute of Education.
"We believe this opens up huge possibilities to explore how VR can be used for initial teacher education, and for the development of communication skills more generally," they said.
