Innovative teaching often starts with a simple question: What if I could give students more meaningful practice before the stakes are real? Through Indiana University's Extended Reality Initiative (XRI) Faculty Fellows Grant, instructors across IU are exploring how extended reality (XR) technologies—such as virtual and augmented reality—can help students build confidence, skills, and insight in ways that traditional approaches alone sometimes cannot.
The following faculty stories highlight two very different contexts, counselor education at IU Southeast and international graduate instructor preparation at IU Bloomington. They both share a common goal: to rethink how students practice complex, high-stakes interactions, using immersive technologies as a way to deepen good teaching.
When Sarah Tucker received an XRI Faculty Fellows grant in spring 2025, she wasn't looking to replace established teaching practices—she was looking to strengthen them. In counselor education, role play has long been used to help students practice essential skills, but Tucker saw clear limitations: performance anxiety, confidentiality concerns, and inconsistent opportunities for feedback. The XRI grant allowed her to explore whether extended reality could address those challenges in more meaningful ways.
Tucker integrated XR activities into a practicum course, where students built on skills developed in an earlier methods class. Using an AI-driven platform called BodySwaps, students engaged in simulated counseling sessions with avatars and responded to detailed client backstories. Students practiced techniques such as reflection of feeling, paraphrasing, and summarizing, receiving immediate feedback rather than waiting for instructor review. The platform is accessible both on laptops and through VR headsets, allowing for gradual immersion.
One feature stood out: the ability for students to "body swap" and view sessions from the client's perspective. This approach removed much of the discomfort associated with watching yourself on video and encouraged deeper, more productive self-assessments.
Student responses exceeded expectations, even among those initially skeptical of the technology. While ongoing use is currently limited by cost, Tucker and her colleague Ashley Burks-Wright are analyzing student data and exploring opportunities for broader adoption. For Tucker, student engagement remains the clearest indicator of the technology's instructional value.
While Tucker focused on counselor preparation, Beatrix Burghardt used her spring 2025 XRI grant to address a different high-stakes instructional challenge: preparing international graduate students to teach undergraduates.
In T502, Communication Skills for International Associate Instructors, Burghardt faced reduced in-class hours even as the stakes of the course remained high. Office hour interactions in particular require cultural awareness, adaptability, and confident communication—skills that are difficult for graduate students to practice authentically through traditional role-play alone. To create more realistic practice interactions, Burghardt integrated the VirtualSpeech platform.
Through the XRI grant, Burghardt collaborated with the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) and the Creator Commons (located in Wells Library) to develop virtual office-hour simulations using AI-driven avatars. She customized scenarios, assigned avatar roles, and refined speech patterns to better reflect real classroom dynamics. Students studied detailed guides and participated in structured orientation sessions before completing assignments independently. The platform allowed both instructors and students to review recordings and feedback reports, supporting reflection and continuous improvement.
Students not only reported increased confidence but also practiced beyond the required number of suggested sessions. Burghardt noted that the experience helped students move away from scripted responses toward more flexible, responsive communication—an essential skill for future instructors. This made her realize that the long-term value of XR lies in its ability to provide authentic practice where the impact extends beyond a single course.
Across campuses and disciplines, the XRI grant is giving faculty the freedom to experiment with using immersive technologies not to chase novelty, but to deepen learning where it matters most. If you are interested in learning more about XR on your campus, reach out to your local teaching and learning center.
