Universidad del Desarrollo prepares the next generation of psychologists
through VR
Discover how UDD's Faculty of Psychology leveraged VirtualSpeech to immerse students in a realistic scenario, helping them develop critical professional skills.
Highlights
Skills
Empathy and active listening in professional settings
700+
hours spent in VR
100%
of students recommend the experience
5,000+
AI-powered roleplays completed
Customer Introduction
The Faculty of Psychology at Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD) aims to train professionals with a scientific, ethical, and socially committed perspective.
UDD's RealiTec Laboratory is an interdisciplinary, educational innovation space that uses XR and AI technologies to enhance experiential learning in different areas of knowledge.
The Goal
As part of UDD's Educational Psychology course, professors Francisca Cuevas and Jorge Varela implemented a VR aspect to the program, titled: "Immersive Exposure to Bullying: The Role of the Psychologist in School Demand".
Their hope was that by implementing this experience into the course, students' professional competencies in educational psychology would be strengthened.
The immersive experience, titled "What's wrong with Jacinta?" , simulated a realistic school conflict, in which students took up the role of Educational Psychologists in a safe practice environment that allowed them to reflect on ethical dilemmas and put theory into practice.
“It's been a great experience from the moment we began coordinating the activity. I would recommend using this, without a doubt. I think there are worlds of possibilities for expanding learning capabilities, and also for developing other types of skills. ."
Francisca Cuevas, Professor, UDD
The Solution
Students took part in the immersive activity using VirtualSpeech software on Meta Quest 3 headsets.
In UDD's RealiTec immersive simulation lab, the fourth-year psychology students practiced resolving the case of "What's wrong with Jacinta?", a school conflict involving bullying.
The students assumed the role of educational psychologists and participated in interviews with 7 AI-powered virtual characters, allowing them to address the case from multiple perspectives (such as the victim, classmates, teachers, and the school's wellbeing officer).
Students developed key competencies, including active listening, empathetic interviewing, systemic analysis of school situations, and proposing interventions.
The safe and controlled environment of virtual reality allowed them to practice these professional skills in an emotionally challenging context.
“I found it to be a very interesting activity. It allowed me to experiment with different ways of interacting with students, patients, teachers, and parents, so that I could really test my knowledge, practice, and make mistakes in order to see what professional practice is like."
Educational Psychology Student, UDD
Results and Benefits
- The use of VirtualSpeech allowed for the integration of technical, emotional, and ethical aspects of professional practice, strengthening students' preparation for their future internships.
- All 60 participating students recommended repeating the activity in future editions of the course.
- Collectively, UDD students spent 700+ hours immersed in VirtualSpeech's realistic professional environments.
- Staff appreciated VirtualSpeech's detailed feedback on factors that would be hard to record in traditional roleplays, such as eye contact.
The experience received an outstanding response from the 60 participating students. Feedback highlighted the VirtualSpeech simulation's realism, professional relevance, and the opportunity to practice empathetic and analytical skills in a safe environment.
