Virtual Reality Simulator Against Public Speaking Phobias is a Project dedicated to increase to public speaking competences and reduce public speaking phobia among VET trainers and other teaching professors. Epidemiological surveys and statistical manuals of psychopathology (DSM-5, ICD 10) recognize that social phobias has a prevalence of 7% across general population and 13% of had at least one episode. Social phobias affect significantly the work of educators which faces different audiences and public situation in the daily work, reducing significantly their performance at work and satisfaction for life. Morever, to practice a public speaking situation with a real audience is very stressful for educators with social phobias, it involve a serious risk for the psychological condition of the educators or also discourage their involvement in future work in education. Our project has the goal to increase the competences of VET trainers and reduce their public speaking phobia through the Virtual Reality Therapy (VRT), an innovative approach that has been demonstrated to be effective for reducing phobias through gradual exposition to phobic stimuli. The Virtual Reality Therapy (VRT) allow participants to simulate a session of public speaking, giving to users tailor-based suggestions for improving their speech and reduce phobia and anxiety of public speaking. The partnership is composed by 6 organisation from Portugal, Italy, Romania, Spain, Greece and Turkey. The partnership includes 3 associations, 1 University, 2 SMEs. The partnership will produce 3 Intellectual Outputs in 7 languages (EN, IT, PT, RO, GR, SP, TK) open and accessible 24/7 for the following goals - increasing public speaking competences - decreasing public speaking phobias O1 - Manual - a 300 pages manual translated in 7 languages designed to help VET trainers and all target groups to improve their skills in public speaking and reducing anxiety. The Manual is designed as an action guide, specifically based on practices and exercises for increasing the quality of the speech and favouring the access to teaching and training professions. It includes a model of competences for effective public speaking described with the ECVET terminology and under EQF recommendation O2 - E-learning Platform - a web-based Platform including 10 hours of public speaking lectures, translated into 7 languages about public speaking techniques, phobia reduction techniques, stress and anxiety management, exercises for increasing the attention. The innovative Platform is able to report automatically improvement O3 - VR System - an immersive VR system which simulated scenarios of public speaking at increasing difficulty, allow self-evaluation of psychological states and gives tailor based suggestions on phobia and anxiety management The participating organisations will moreover organize: - 5 transnational project meeting, including 5 brief workshop dedicated to experts - 6 multiplier events (120 participants) - at least 12 multiplier events (200 participants expected) During the project's implementation: - at least 30000 people will be informed about projects results - at least 3000 people will access to intellectual outputs - a dissemination plan involving VET centers, school educators, policy makers, decision makers, association representative of professionals included in the target group, press will be involved at broad level in order to promote the adoption of the intellectual output at local, regional, national and international level - a massive plan of online communication will be performed through the joint action of several channels: official website of the project, e-mail services, autoresponders, social media marketing An impact study will be performed in order to measure the desired outcomes - increased competences and resilience of VET trainers - reduced negative states of educators (phobia, stress and anxiety) - effectiveness of the model in VET centers, Schools and Educators The Impact Study will be used in order to promote the adoption of the intellectual output and possible transferability in all fields of education. The Sustainability Plan ensures that all functionalities and materials will be kept open and accessible to all after the EU funding. Moreover, it includes several strategies to extend the content with: exploitation strategies in other countries, extension of project's content, transferability in different sectors.
The main objectives of the projects were: To reduce public speaking phobias among VET trainers, University Professors, School Teachers and other members of the target groups and to increase public speaking competences among VET trainers, University Professors, School Teachers and other members of the target groups.
Epidemiological surveys and statistical manuals of psychopathology (DSM-5, ICD 10) recognised that social phobias had a prevalence of 7% in the general population and 13% had a moment in their life of this type of phobia. Social phobias significantly affect the work of educators who face different publics and public situations in their daily work, significantly reducing their job performance and satisfaction for life. Moreover, practicing a public speaking situation with a real audience is very stressful for educators with social phobias, implying a serious risk to educators' psychological condition or also discouraging their involvement in future work in education. Our project aimed to increase the skills of VET trainers and reduce their phobia of public speaking through Virtual Reality Therapy (VRT), an innovative approach that had been shown to be effective in reducing phobias through gradual exposure to phobic stimuli. Virtual Reality Therapy (VRT) allowed participants to simulate a public speaking session, giving users tailored cues to improve their speech and reduce public speaking phobia and anxiety. We conducted a needs analysis in the participating countries by cross-referencing information on the subject (research on VRT applied to phobias, access criteria for education professions namely VET trainers, school teachers, university lecturers), epidemiological surveys, policies and rules related to education professions in the participating countries and identified common needs among all of them. Needs analysis: - VET trainers are an unregulated profession, formal access criteria are not defined in the vast majority of cases. - Secondary school teachers and university teachers have access to the profession through open competition selection, which does not consider social competences. - Public speaking skills are learned (in the vast majority of cases) on the job without training and this can increase stress and reduce performance. - the teaching profession is a growing sector, this factor was an opportunity for the participating countries, which share a common problem with a high percentage of young SEN (according to Eurostat, 2019 - TK: 33,2 % IT : 28,9%, GR : 26,8 %, RO : 20,6%, ES : 19,6%, PT : 11,9%) - psychotherapy offers several methods for reducing social phobia, most of them based on systematic desensitization, which require participants to be gradually exposed to social contact. This is sometimes too risky and stressful for the credibility of the educator, does not prevent mistakes and may even discourage participants from entering the profession of educator/teacher/trainer. Moreover, it is difficult to organise and manage. Virtual Reality offers immediate exposure and complete control over contextual factors in a protected environment, facilitating the application of psychotherapeutic approaches to reduce social phobias. - According to the European Agency for Health and Safety at Work (2009), education and health professionals share the highest rate of stress and anxiety. Knowing these needs and this previous diagnosis, the project was created and was financed by the EU.