<https://www.rte.ie/author/883835-brian-odonovan/> By Brian O'Donovan
Work & Technology Correspondent
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 DCUs
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 DCUs
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.
RTÉ Technology.
