AI-powered VR soft skills training case studies | Does it work?

Building communication confidence in nursing students with AI & VR at The College of New Jersey

Written by Georgia Read | Aug 18, 2025 11:45:00 PM

About

The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), situated on a large campus in Ewing Township, New Jersey, serves over 7,400 students across eight schools.

TCNJ Nursing school have been working with Bodyswaps since 2023 to pilot and deploy our soft skills content to their students. 

Simulation Coordinator Chelsea Lebo also consulted on our localization of popular module Navigating Angry Conversations.
Goals
  • Provide structured, curriculum-aligned soft skills training
  • Improve students’ communication skills, particularly in interprofessional and therapeutic contexts
  • Build students’ confidence in conducting clinical conversations, reducing anxiety and feelings of awkwardness through repeated, psychologically safe practice

Deployment

Flexible sessions

Offering a mixture of in-person, VR-based sessions and the ability to download Bodyswaps on a personal device (mobile, tablet, etc.) allows for more flexibility and accessibility for students

Pathways for faculty buy-in

Chelsea used Bodyswaps’ learner pathway builder to create pathways targeted at particular educators’ objectives. This made deploying easier for instructors and allowed them to see the immediate relevancy of Bodyswaps 

Results

Advice

  • Tie Bodyswaps and other new technologies to curriculum objectives to encourage uptake by educators and ingrain the learning for students
  • Start small: get one course to embrace it successfully, and then build up semester by semester
  • Seek out like-minded colleagues to share and discuss ideas with, having champions who will support the objectives of your deployment

Future plans

Chelsea and the Simulation team are looking to encourage broader adoption of Bodyswaps across campus to explore the prospect of cross-faculty access.

Chelsea also hopes to introduce the new Job Interview AI roleplay to TCNJ’s career center to encourage its integration into career-readiness programs.