The pandemic in 2020 accelerated the adoption of learning technologies in education. Campus leaders had to rethink the digital learning resources available, and faculty had to rapidly adapt to changes in delivery methods while keeping students engaged. Inevitably, the quality of student learning has taken center stage, and with it is an emerging focus on changing teaching and learning pedagogy and harnessing technology to deliver new modes of learning (APLU). This shift has allowed faculty and scholars to be open-minded in adopting advanced technologies like virtual reality (VR) to enhance curricula, which has the added benefit of significantly impacting upward mobility. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) stand out for recognizing that every student deserves access to quality education and are also centers for research and innovation (TEConomy, 2022). Therefore, it is vital for HBCUs to be at the forefront of adopting VR because integrating VR into curricula provides a unique opportunity for HBCUs to not only maintain their competitive edge by increasing student outcomes through meaningful engagement and enriched learning experiences, but to also facilitate enhancement of students’ upward economic and social mobility.
The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is an HBCU and the only public institution of higher education in the Nation’s capital. In 2021, it started to provide VR resources for the campus community through the Center for Advancement of Learning (CAL). Bolstering the technological advances necessitated by COVID-19 imperatives, the initiative’s primary purpose was to build knowledge on VR and encourage a multipronged approach in teaching and learning to enhance curriculum conceptualization and the entire education life cycle. In collaboration with CAL, the Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) program explored a program-wide integration of VR into SLP graduate courses and clinical practicum. The initiative involved identifying factors necessary for the successful integration and implementation of VR in program curriculum, barriers to implementation, and student attitudes regarding academic and clinical application of VR. It prioritized achieving sustainable and adaptable VR integration that synergistically addressed evolving program and student requirements. This approach aimed to improve student learning and clinical competency through evidence-based methods, with the endorsement of both faculty and students.
Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are experts in communication who work with people of all ages, babies to adults, with communication and swallowing disorders. The conditions treated by SLPs include articulation and phonological disorders, developmental language disorders, language disorders secondary to stroke and traumatic brain injury, fluency disorders such as stuttering, voice disorders, and dysphagia. Effective training of SLPs requires that students understand the complex conceptualizations that underlie the biological/physiological, psychological, developmental, linguistic, and cultural interactions at play in determining the etiology and development of communication and swallowing disorders. Furthermore, students must also demonstrate sufficient knowledge and skills in the assessment and intervention for communication disorders to deliver effective services to clients.
Experiential learning is a cornerstone in the teaching and training of highly competent SLPs. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model (Kolb, 1984) defines learning as “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.” When students engage in the cycle of experiential learning involving experiencing, reflecting, thinking, and acting, deep learning occurs. VR’s unique ability to capture and recreate real-world content and interactions in virtual environments blurs the line between the real and virtual worlds, allowing students to feel fully immersed in experiences (Suh & Prophet, 2018). VR-facilitated learning can offer students the opportunity to engage across the four phases of experiential learning, improving educational and clinical outcomes.
The use of VR in teaching offers distinct advantages over more traditional representation modes such as text, picture, video, or 3D models, as it engages most of the senses that humans use when navigating real-world environments. Research in healthcare (Kobayashi et al., 2018; Zhao et al., 2016), education (Calvert & Abadia, 2020; Frank & Kapila, 2017), and crisis management (Kwok et al., 2019; Morelot et al., 2021) show that VR can improve students’ learning experience and promote their cooperation and creativity in classes. This data offers support for the potential benefits of VR for educational simulation and therapeutic intervention. For a highly experiential health-related field like SLP with a clinical component, customizable VR experiences offer a unique opportunity to increase student learning outcomes and improve patient therapeutic outcomes.
As part of the VR initiative, students took a two-part learning module on VR in SLP. Part 1 familiarized students with immersive technologies and explored the use of VR in SLP education and clinical practice. Part 2 focused on the practical application of VR in SLP education, the treatment of communication disorders, identification of barriers to adoption of VR, and appraisal of the clinical effectiveness of VR-based therapies. The module provided students with hands-on experiences using VR in both educational and clinical settings. Students were surveyed regarding their VR-facilitated learning and clinical experiences. Survey results were overwhelmingly positive. Students reported the following benefits to using VR: 1) allowing them to test real-world lessons in low-risk situations, 2) helping them visualize difficult and abstract concepts, 3) increasing their motivation to learn, 4) allowing more personalized learning, and 5) providing them with the technical skills to excel in a changing technological workforce.
At the programmatic level, students reported that: 1) integrating VR in SLP program courses would enhance student learning, 2) incorporating VR in the SLP student clinical practicum would enhance students’ clinical competence, 3) the use of VR in SLP clinical practice would lead to increased client therapeutic outcomes, 4) they were very likely to explore the use of VR in their professional clinical practice as SLPs, and 5) they were more likely to choose to attend a program that had integrated VR into the curriculum over one that hadn’t. These findings support the systematic integration of VR into SLP educational and clinical curricula. Threading the connections between experiences and knowledge will increase learners’ readiness as they enter the 21st-century workforce.
The use of VR in education can assist HBCUs with their commitment to their constituents for social mobility. The definition of social mobility is simply the movement of individuals from one socioeconomic status to another (Bos, Miller, & Bull, 2022). Higher education institutions are active agents, but for HBCUs, it is imperative to find innovative approaches to uplift this historically underserved population. The How College Contributes to Workforce Success: Employer Views on What Matters Most 2021 report emphasizes that 56% of employers consider real-world competency and skills, and 53% view an innovative mindset as critical to employability (Finley, 2021). Our vision for UDC SLP students is to not only use VR as a resource to understand complex concepts and clinical practice but to also unleash their creativity to become creators of VR applications or subject-matter experts for tech companies. To stimulate entrepreneurial exploration, the VR initiative included student engagement with industry innovators in the commercialization of virtual reality in clinical settings in the SLP field. This offered them unique insight into the creative and commercialization process. The global virtual reality market size is expected to reach USD 84.09 billion by 2028 (Fortune Business Insights, 2022). In sum, VR exposure broadens career options and increases employability.
Effective systematic integration of VR into the curriculum is key to achieving the outlined benefits to learning. The study isolated the following factors necessary for effective integration: 1) the program must be rooted in faculty and student buy-in and participation from the earliest stages, 2) the program must be responsive to faculty and student feedback, and 3) the program must use the feedback in determining VR assets selection and the pace of integration. Program success is also supported by ongoing and robust synergistic collaboration and the sharing of expertise between discipline faculty and university technology services. Ultimately, a well-designed program to integrate VR into curricula should spur comprehensive and holistic institutional discussion and exploration of VR. Moreover, it should facilitate adoption across varied disciplines and programs since VR is expected to play an important role in the future of education across all fields.
The VR initiative outlined in this paper highlights the opportunity available to HBCUs to harness emerging technologies and further their mission. The benefits are multipronged and include institutions gaining a competitive edge on the higher education landscape by providing students with state-of-the-art learning experiences, enhancing student learning outcomes and competencies, facilitating students’ upward mobility by exposing them to disruptive technologies that reshape society, and boosting student enrollment. To maintain their necessary role in the ever-changing educational space, HBCUs must engage innovative approaches to meet evolving educational challenges and equip students with unparalleled life skills.
Fatma Elshobokshy is the director of the Center for the Advancement of Learning and is an expert dedicated to enhancing the University’s teaching and learning culture through a digital learning strategy. She focuses on using immersive technologies to improve curriculum design and learning outcomes. Her role involves guiding innovation in instructional technologies and fostering a culture of educational improvement and accessibility through collaboration with university leadership and faculty.
Richard Kalunga is an assistant professor of speech-language pathology and academic coordinator at the University of the District of Columbia. With a background in engineering, he is passionate about the use of technology in higher education. His work on digital transformation in teaching and learning, including the use of extended reality technologies, is focused on eliminating barriers to learning imposed by space and time. He seeks to leverage evolving immersive technologies to deliver learning that anchors students to the communities they serve and empowers them to become consequential change-agents for their professions and communities.
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