Boukas, Nikolaos

Both the European Union and the OECD highlight, amongst others, collaboration, virtual communication and problem-solving, as well as social and digital skills as key competences for the 21st century. As such, the Hotel Academy project aims at the development of a joint curriculum that allows for virtual interdisciplinary, international, and intercultural collaboration and exchange between three European universities in the field of hospitality management. In the implementation of the curriculum, immersive technologies are applied to role plays as the primary didactic method. In this paper, we present research on the piloting of an industry-specific desktop/VR-based role play after a detailed description of the project and the VR learning environment. The evaluation of participants’ user experiences follows a mixed methods approach and helps not only to draw attention to learners’ experiences of presence and immersion, but also to the reflection on the role play design and didactical approach, as well as the teaching and learning environment. Our results imply that students were willing to draw their full attention to the underlying learning task when working in the desktop VR environment.

Virtual collaborative learning and teaching benefits from using immersive technologies to develop key competences, such as collaboration, virtual communication, and problem-solving skills, as well as social and digital skills. Based on the formative evaluation of the skills in the Hotel Academy project, which aimed at the development and implementation of a transnational desktop/VR-based roleplay, this chapter will draw attention to both the potential of virtual reality and the learners’ experiences of presence and immersion during its experimentation. Additionally, findings from the summative validation of the underlying didactical framework to develop transnational and cross-institutional blueprints for the implementation of this specific VR environment in higher education institutions will be presented. Finally, conclusions will be drawn regarding the future use of such roleplaying in social work management education.