VRoom: Virtual Reality Simulations for Social Workers
Working with Ball State University’s Department of Social Work, we’ve created custom virtual training exercises for the HTC Vive and Oculus GO. More specifically, simulations that allow users to practice variety of workforce-related skills. (See the video.)
Further, these virtual training applications address learning competencies outlined by the Council for Social Work Education (CSWE). More specifically:
- Making the process of engaging/assessing/intervening/evaluating individuals/ families/ groups/ orgs/ communities, a very real experience for the classroom
- Consequently, these portable, cost-effective applications can easily be used in on/off-site, traditional, online, and blended educational settings
- Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior
- As a result: building skills through deliberate practice
- Engage diversity in practice
- Impacting issues: drug use, suicide, and disproportionality in practice outcomes
- Engage in practice-informed research and research informed practice
- Application developed from different disciplines/perspectives, emphasizing the importance of data in sound decision making
Pilots first learn the controls of an aircraft in a simulator… Likewise, we want human service training to allow for costly errors and practice to happen in virtual environments, before real families get on board.