Coleg Gwent - Preparing Students for the Future with Virtual Reality

Background

Coleg Gwent is the largest college in Wales, serving communities across the five local authorities of Southeast Wales. The college provides courses across five campuses: one in each of the local authorities.

The college’s mission is to “change lives through learning”. As part of this mission, they’re focusing on developing digital skills to prepare their learners, aligning with the Welsh Government’s Digital 2030 Strategy.

Goal

Elevate digital literacy skills for students across the college.
Help students develop the soft skills needed in the workplace and seen as priorities by employers.
Provide students with the tools to manage anxieties about public speaking and enhance confidence in giving presentations.

Deployment

Action Research Project

The research project was undertaken with a group of business students to measure their improvements and level of confidence in soft skills such as public speaking and interview skills. Following the success of this research, the college began scaling up its use of Bodyswaps.

Across the Campuses

Bodyswaps is now available across all five of Coleg Gwent’s campuses, with each campus offering 10 VR headsets to be loaned out. Job Interview Skills and other employability modules are proving popular amongst students.

One particular learner stands out in my mind because whenever I would ask her to present something she would have moments of flight. She’d run out of the room upset, calm down, and come back to ask if she could just present to me.

By the end of the pilot, she was able to speak confidently to a room full of people on a working trip to Barcelona.

Natalie Hopkins

Digital Learning Champion & Business Lecturer

Results

75% of learners would recommend Bodyswaps to their peers
69% of students identified areas to improve on their skills
75% of learners rated Bodyswaps as 6 or above for how they felt it helped them develop their soft skills

Student Testimonials

"Bodyswaps helped me gain a better understanding of how to structure a presentation to ensure the message sticks with the audience."

"It helps quite a lot to deal with anxiety and the power pose is great."

"helpful and I learnt a lot on how to control anxiety and how to look when sat or stood up."

Advice

Get your learners comfortable with the technology, particularly when using VR. Learners need to be comfortable to be able to give the verbal responses.
When planning deployment, decide what device(s) you’ll prioritise and ensure you take that into consideration. For example, are your facilitators experienced with utilising VR as a teaching tool or will “Train the Trainer” sessions be essential for deployment?

Future Plans

Coleg Gwent is exploring other research projects they can undertake with Bodyswaps.

At the same time, they’re investigating the potential for adopting Bodyswaps on PCs in order to scale up usage across the college. The Welsh Baccalaureate qualification taken by learners in Wales requires public speaking, so the Public Speaking & Presentation Skills module could become an important part of Coleg Gwent’s offering to learners.