Background
The Presentation Hall draws its inspiration from engineering studies. Around half of an engineer's work involves communicating with others. And yet, communication skills are often poorly represented in the relevant curricula. VR is particularly well suited to closing this gap by creating an immersive and interactive environment in which students can practise their social skills safely and effectively.
Virtual reality offers an exciting solution for learning soft skills such as presenting and public speaking. In the Presentation Hall, students can improve their skills in front of a simulated audience without experiencing any negative real-life consequences. This can, for example, provide experience in presentation situations, but also train the ability to de-escalate conflict situations.
Interior design
Das Szenario beinhaltet zwei größere Räume. Nutzerinnen starten in einem geräumigen, hellen Vorraum mit vielen Fenstern. So befinden sie sich zunächst in einer zwanglosen Umgebung, die einladend und motivierend wirkt. In diesem Raum befindet sich auch eine kleine Vortragsbühne, die für einfache Vortragssituationen genutzt werden kann. Dazu können die Nutzerinnen Inhalte wie PowerPoint-Präsentationen oder PDFs browser-basiert über geteilte Bildschirme freigeben.
If you want to give a presentation to a larger audience, the second room, which is inspired by a traditional lecture hall, is ideal. Here you will find a virtual auditorium filled with non-playable avatars (NPCs). These can be used by the admin to play simple reactions. For example, speakers can receive very effective positive or negative reactions to certain aspects of their presentation.
Outlook
In upcoming updates, the avatars will be converted into agents using generative AI, enabling them to actively and, above all, autonomously intervene in the lecture situation. These agents will be able to be equipped with different personas to enable interesting situations.
Furthermore, the use of learning analytics and their visualisation in VR offers further potential for learning soft skills such as conflict management.
