Back to Search
Start Over
An Evaluation of Virtual Reality Role-Play Experiences for Helping-Profession Courses
- Source :
-
Teaching of Psychology . Jan 2022 49(1):78-84. - Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- Background: Providing students with virtual role-play experiences has the potential to bring counseling role-plays into large undergraduate courses. Objective: The purpose of this study was to trial a virtual reality role-play experience where students played the role of a student counsellor. Method: Seventy-three undergraduate psychology students played the role of a student counsellor interacting with a virtual client in two role-plays, one via desktop and one via head mounted display (HMD). Students provided feedback on their experience. Results: 70% of the students found the experiences very interesting, engaging and immersive, with 82% preferring the HMD mode of presentation. The virtual characters were believable as distressed clients with 96% of students perceiving greater negative than positive emotion expressed by the characters. Most of the students (64%) mood improved from the beginning of the experience to the end, however 14% experienced a decline in mood. The students agreed (95%) that the experiences would be a valuable experience to a psychology course. Conclusion: Our results provide evidence that the virtual role-play experiences are well-liked by students. Teaching Implications: The approach presented in this paper represents a practical method to provide virtual role-play experiences to both on-campus and online undergraduate students.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0098-6283
- Volume :
- 49
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- ERIC
- Journal :
- Teaching of Psychology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- EJ1321951
- Document Type :
- Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628320983231