To create an interactive and innovative VR environment for collaborative learning and knowledge sharing across partner institutions. To increase learner motivation and engagement through immersive scenarios with digital avatars that enable safe, repeatable practice and timely feedback. To develop the digital competences of students, educators, and clinical trainers through hands-on use of VR and training-of-trainers activities. To make communication training more inclusive and accessible by removing geographic and scheduling barriers and enabling remote participation. To co-develop and agree methodological tools, best-practice guidance, and evaluation procedures across partner universities, together with the EAPC and 3dsense, to support the development, implementation, and assessment of VR-based communication training. To pilot and rigorously evaluate the VR application across all participating universities using mixed methods (feasibility, usability, learner and teacher satisfaction) and to identify barriers and enablers for routine use. To disseminate open, practical resources (scenarios, guides, website content, webinars/publications) and to plan for sustainability and curricular integration beyond the project period.
We applied for VR-TALKS to address a shared need in European higher education for scalable, high-quality training in communication skills. Traditional methods—classroom role-play and work with standardized patients—are effective but resource-intensive, difficult to harmonise across institutions, and limited by timetables, travel, and staffing. By bringing together universities, the EAPC, and industry partner 3dsense, we aimed to co-create an interactive VR environment that supports realistic, repeatable scenarios with digital avatars, immediate feedback, and safe practice. This approach is more efficient than conventional role-play or standardized patients—offering consistent scenarios at lower cost and with easier logistics—while sustaining or improving learning outcomes and engagement. The project responds to learners’ and teachers’ needs to build digital competences, increase motivation and inclusion, and ensure access to high-quality communication training across borders, without geographical or time barriers. Educational innovation: VR-TALKS scales immersive, empathy-centred VR practice to transform communication training across Europe.