# Inclusive Education in the Digital Age: Enhancing University Teaching Through IVR and Online Learning

Antonella Ferrara, Clement Desoche, Valentin Clement, Anna Clavel, Yulia Kostyleva-Leborgne, Stéphanie Mazza, Amandine E. Rey, Alice Gomez

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Antonella Ferrara, Clement Desoche, Valentin Clement, Anna Clavel, Yulia Kostyleva-Leborgne, et al. Inclusive Education in the Digital Age: Enhancing University Teaching Through IVR and Online Learning. iLRN 2025: 11th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network, Illinois Institute of Technology - Chicago, Illinois (US), Jun 2025, Chicago & Virtual, United States. hal-05151043

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# Inclusive Education in the Digital Age: Enhancing University Teaching
Through IVR and Online Learning

Antonella Ferrara<fnref n="1" />⁻<fnref n="2" />⁻<fnref n="3" />, Clément Desoche<fnref n="1" />⁻<fnref n="2" />⁻<fnref n="4" />, Valentin Clement<fnref n="4" />⁻<fnref n="5" />, Anna Clavel<fnref n="6" />, Yulia Kostyleva-Leborgne<fnref n="6" />, Stéphanie Mazza<fnref n="1" />⁻<fnref n="2" />⁻<fnref n="3" />, Amandine E. Rey<fnref n="1" />⁻<fnref n="2" />⁻<fnref n="3" /> and Alice Gomez<fnref n="1" />⁻<fnref n="2" />⁻<fnref n="3" />

**Abstract.** Recent advancements in pedagogical research underscore the need for accelerated digital transformation to foster inclusiveness in higher education. This conceptual study explores whether immersive virtual reality (IVR), paired with an online training program, can enhance inclusive teaching practices among university educators, particularly in supporting students with cognitive difficulties.

Students with learning difficulties face significant barriers, including heightened stress, lower self-esteem, and poor academic performance. However, university staff often lack sufficient knowledge of legal frameworks, resources, and strategies to create inclusive environments. In France, educators frequently cite inadequate training to address special educational needs (SEN), perpetuating cycles of academic struggles and declining mental health among students, which often result in dropouts.

To address these issues, we propose the development of an online training program complemented by an IVR simulation that replicates academic challenges faced by students, such as reading difficulties, visuospatial issues, and cognitive overload. Ninety university educators will participate, divided into three groups: 1) IVR and online training, 2) online-only training, and 3) a control group. Participants' knowledge of SEN and teaching practices will be assessed before and six months post-intervention.

This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of IVR in fostering inclusive teaching by immersing educators in realistic learning scenarios. By bridging the gap between theory and practice, this study contributes to the ongoing discourse on innovative training methods, their ethical implications, and their potential to transform higher education.

**Keywords:** Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR), Inclusive Teaching Practices, Cognitive Difficulties.

# 1 Introduction

## 1.1 Objectives

This research is part of Action 4 of the INCLUDE project, supported by the French government and headed by the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (Lyon, France). This project brings together higher education stakeholders to collectively create a more inclusive learning environment by providing the university community with field-tested digital solutions, resources, and educational accessibility features. The goal is to develop initiatives aimed at removing barriers to higher education access and student success: geographic, social, physical, and cognitive disabilities, etc.

The idea is to address these issues by developing innovative tools to train university teachers in inclusive practices. Specifically, the main goal of Action 4 of the INCLUDE project is to transform teaching practices and increase university researchers-teachers' participation in training programs focused on inclusive practices using innovative technologies.

<footnote n="1">¹ Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), CNRS UMR 5292, INSERM UMRS 1028, Lyon, France</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL1), Lyon, France</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Institut national supérieur du professorat et de l'éducation (INSPÉ), Lyon, France</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Neuro-Immersion, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), Lyon, France</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ École Supérieure D'informatique Epitech, Lyon, France</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ Institut Français de l'Éducation (IFE), École Normale Supérieure (ENS), Lyon, France
antonella.ferrara@univ-lyon1.fr</footnote>
To achieve this, we propose using immersive virtual reality (IVR) to simulate challenging learning situations and link these experiences to an online training program on inclusive teaching practices. Specifically, this study seeks to: evaluate the effectiveness of IVR combined with online training in fostering inclusive teaching practices; examine how stress responses during IVR scenarios influence changes in teaching behaviors.

## 1.2 Background

University students with disabilities or learning difficulties face significant academic challenges, often accompanied by high levels of stress and low self-esteem. Previous studies [1-5] have highlighted how a lack of adequate support creates a vicious cycle that exacerbates difficulties, ultimately leading to academic dropouts and mental health issues. Despite the importance of addressing these issues, many university faculty members have limited knowledge of specific educational needs, limited knowledge of legal issues, of the available resources, and teaching practices that could foster greater inclusion [6-10]. This training gap is particularly evident in France, where academic staff frequently report a lack of opportunities to receive training on special educational needs and in inclusive practices [11].

The absence of early diagnosis and insufficient support also contributes to a condition known as the " Fade-out syndrome," where students no longer perceive the value of education due to accumulated challenges [12]. Dropout rates are particularly high among students with disabilities: while 65% of students without disabilities complete their degree programs, this figure drops to 45% for students with disabilities [13, 14]. Structural barriers, inadequate support services, and an often-unfavorable academic climate further compound the problem.

Furthermore, recent educational discussions highlight the need to accelerate the digital transition to promote the inclusion of all students in higher education. The COVID-19 pandemic has particularly accelerated the transformative impact of digital technologies on teacher training, while increasing attention is being paid to creating inclusive and immersive educational practices that prioritize the well-being of both teachers and students [15]. Online training overcomes time management constraints for any group of university teachers simultaneously. However, there is a challenge, as university teachers may consider that they are not concerned by special educational needs training, and in France, such training is neither compulsory nor taken into account in their professional development. It is therefore essential to encourage the motivation of university teachers to undertake non-compulsory training on inclusive education.

To this end, among the new tools and technologies likely to facilitate the training of university teachers, IVR allows strong control over the situations presented, easy inter-university transferability and high motivation for the learning situation. What is more, the use of IVR fits well with the pedagogical approach of disability simulation. Disability simulation could be a useful exercise in understanding the difficulties faced by people with disabilities. However, to be effective, it must include a clear didactic component with the teaching of specific alternative techniques to achieve positive results and accurate understanding. Otherwise, simply simulating disability can instead intensify pre-existing fears and misconceptions about disability [16-18].

Therefore, in response to these challenges, our project explores the use of IVR to offer immersive experiences that simulate the difficulties faced by students with cognitive difficulties. These simulations are combined with inclusive strategies that educators can implement in their teaching practices. The IVR scenarios were developed based on the expertise of teachers and cognitive science researchers who work with students experiencing academic difficulties. Particularly for the challenge scenarios to simulate reading difficulties we referred to the crowding effects, according to Martelli and colleagues [19], and for the inclusive scenarios to the layout guidelines to improve the reading experience of people with reading difficulties [20, 21]. For the development of the challenge scenario on visuospatial impairments, we referred to studies on students who experience coordination difficulties in geometry [22] and studies that focus on the most appropriate tools to minimize the impact of these coordination difficulties [23]. For the cognitive overload scenarios, we took as reference the working memory studies of Fancourt and Holmes [24] for the challenge scenarios and studies analyzing compensatory strategies for cognitive overload for the inclusive scenarios [25]. Finally, for the scenario on learned helplessness, we referred to the classic experiment based on studies by Seligman and colleagues and the studies analyzing the underlying mechanisms [26-28]. This allowed us to ground our simulations in real-world educational contexts and evidence-based practices.

The aim of this research project is to determine whether IVR, combined with an online training program, can foster new inclusive practices in universities, in particular to better support students with learning difficulties. To do this, we want to offer university teachers experience of the various cognitive difficulties encountered by students, combined with online training in inclusive practices. Using IVR simulation, four challenges have been designed to reflect the experiences of a student with learning difficulties in a challenging or inclusive learning environment. By engaging in immersive, first-person experiences, teachers gain insight into the challenges faced
by students with reading difficulties, visuospatial impairments, cognitive overload and feelings of learned helplessness - while exploring inclusive solutions to these challenges.

To evaluate the effectiveness of this innovative training approach, 90 university teachers will be recruited. The procedure includes a pre-test phase where adopted teaching practices and knowledge of learning disabilities will be assessed, after which participants will be randomly divided into three groups: (1) Online and IVR training group, which will carry out both online and virtual reality training; (2) Online-only training group, which will carry out only online training on inclusive practices; (3) Passive group (control group), which will carry out no training at all. All groups will then be assessed again on their teaching practices and their knowledge of learning disabilities. In addition, for the online training and IVR group, levels of self-esteem and perceived stress (self-questionnaires) and perceived stress (heart rate and respiratory rate) will be measured before and after the challenge scenarios, to evaluate the effectiveness of the device in modulating the intensity of the immersive experience.

We expect that this research could highlight the potential of innovative training methods to create significant changes in educational practices and improve outcomes for students with disabilities and difficulties.

# 2 Methods

## 2.1 Participants

Through a power analysis performed with G*Power, the number of participants needed to obtain a statistical power of 0.80 (or 80%) is found to be 66 subjects in total for a mean effect size *f*=0.20, i.e., 22 subjects per group. This number is defined according to statistical criteria, considering the following parameters: Effect size (*f*) 0.20; Significance level (α\alphaα) 0.05; Power (1 - β\betaβ) 0.80. Because of the risk of dropouts associated with longitudinal follow-up, we planned to include 30 participants per group.

Hence, ninety university faculty members from seven partner institutions of the INCLUDE project will participate. Eligibility criteria include being a faculty member at one of the partner institutions, while exclusion criteria include conditions such as vertigo, epilepsy, or uncorrected vision impairments. Participants will be randomized into three groups: 1) IVR and Online Training (n=30), 2) Online-only Training (n=30), 3) Control (No Training) (n=30).

All the participants provided written informed consent to participate in the experiment, which was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL1) and Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL) (Lyon, France), in agreement with the 2013 Helsinki Declaration [29].

## 2.2 Material

*Teaching Practices and Knowledge.* Inclusive teaching practices and knowledge about learning difficulties will be assessed in pre- and post-IVR sessions through questionnaire on Attitudes Toward Learning Disabilities, inspired by Cornoldi and colleagues [30].

In addition, to assess the pre-post effect of the training on teachers' understanding of students' experienced difficulties, participants' empathy quotients will be measured using the Empathy Quotient Test (EQ) [31], validated for the French population.

*Self-assessment scales.* To determine the effects of the challenge scenarios on the participants, standardized and validated scales for the French population will be used to assess: the perceived stress, through The Perceived Stress Scale (PSE) [32] and self-esteem through The Self-Esteem Scale (ÉES-10) [33].

*Assessment of psychophysiological parameters.* The Hexoskin® device (Carré Technologies, France), which consists of a connected T-shirt that collects information on the wearer's heart rate and respiratory rate, will be used to assess perceived stress.

*Virtual Reality.* Immersive virtual reality scenarios will be entirely generated or partially edited through Unity Software (Unity Technologies, C#; C++). A 360° camera (Insta360 One R) will be used to record some real scenes that will then be edited and reworked to become a navigable virtual scenario. The following headsets will be used: HTC Vive Pro, Oculus Quest 3, Oculus Quest 2, Oculus Rift S, Meta Quest Pro, Vive Focus. Some of these devices are equipped with an eye-tracking system, a device that will be used to reproduce deviations in the simulation of reading errors in one of the scenarios and to record participants' gaze performance to evaluate cognitive engagement.

*Online Survey Platform.* LimeSurvey® (LimeSurvey GmbH), an online survey tool aimed at students, professionals and companies, will be used. It will be used to create questionnaires and derive the requested
information. The data collected will be routed and stored on the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL) server.

*On-line training.* The Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) platform, the open-source software (GNU GPL) officially adopted by UCBL1 to provide online courses for students and teachers, will be used for the online training modules.

## 2.3 Experimental Design

To evaluate the effectiveness of this innovative training approach, 90 university teachers will be recruited. The procedure includes a pre-test phase in which adopted teaching practices and knowledge of learning disabilities will be assessed, after which participants will be divided into three groups: (1) Online and IVR training group, which will carry out both online and virtual reality training (n = 30); (2) Online-only training group, which will carry out only online training on inclusive practices (n = 30); (3) Control group, which will carry out no training on inclusive practices (n = 30). Afterwards, all groups will be evaluated again after 6 months on their teaching practices and their knowledge of learning disabilities. In addition, for the online training and IVR group, self-esteem levels and perceived and felt stress will be measured before and after the challenging scenarios via connected devices (e.g., Hexoskin®) and self-reported scales. University teachers assigned to the Control or Online-only group will be offered the opportunity to participate in e-learning and IVR at the end of the study in order to maintain equity of access to information for both groups.

Both the Online and IVR training group and Online-only training group will complete a 6-hour online course on inclusive practices. In addition, the Online and IVR training group participants will engage in four immersive "challenge" scenarios simulating the difficulties of students with learning disabilities (reading difficulties, visuomotor impairments, cognitive overload and the learned helplessness), and successively in as so many virtual scenarios that will demonstrate actionable strategies to create inclusive environments, providing participants with potential solutions to overcome the challenges presented earlier. Self-esteem and stress levels (heart rate and respiration) will be measured before and after the IVR sessions. Eye-tracking technology will monitor focus and attention during the scenarios to evaluate cognitive engagement.

For the IVR training, participants will be immersed in immersive experiences to better understand students' cognitive needs and adapt teaching methods to the university. The knowledge of educators and cognitive science researchers assisting students with academic difficulties formed the basis for the development of these IVR scenarios. This allowed us to base our simulations on real educational contexts and research-proven methodologies. Particularly there will be 4 scenarios: reading difficulties, visuomotor impairments, cognitive overload and the learned helplessness. These will be shown first in the challenge version, which simulates the difficulties of students with learning disabilities, and then in the inclusive version, to show the best practices to be adopted to reduce students' difficulties.

In detail, for *Cognitive Overload scenarios*, a 360° camera will be used to record and enact two scenarios: the challenge scenario, which reproduces most situations that create cognitive overload, and the inclusion scenario, which shows practices to be adopted to minimize difficulties. In the challenge scenario, the participant in the role of a student will participate in a lecture in which a teacher will present his course using slides in rapid succession, with a lot of disorganized information, and the oral and visual content will not match. Many distracting factors will be present in the scene (noise inside and outside the classroom, people and moving objects, etc.). The participant will be asked to answer questions about the information presented by the virtual teacher to assess his or her attentional capacity in a cognitive overload setting. For the inclusive scene, the same setting will be reproduced, showing how with a slower presentation by the virtual professor, with less dense content, and an organization of information preceded by a table of contents, with oral content matching visual content, it will be easier to be able to maintain a constant and consistently high level of attention such that performance on the attentional test that will be successively presented will be improved.

For the *Reading Difficulties scenarios*, a VR helmet with eye-tracking will be used to immerse participants in 2 scenarios: the challenge scenario, which reproduces most of the layout errors that make reading difficult, and the inclusive scenario, which shows the practices to adopt to minimize difficulties. In the challenge scenario, the participants in the role of a student will participate in a lecture where the teacher will be displaying information to be memorized on slides, at the end of which they will have to answer questions. These slides reproduce all the layout errors that make reading difficult: use of small fonts, reduced spacing between letters, reduced spacing between lines, long sentences. In addition, through the eye-tracking device with which the VR helmet is equipped, it will be possible to simulate an increased “crowding effect,” a phenomenon typical of the most severe states of dyslexia where there is an overlapping of adjacent letters. Here, adjacent letters and lines will overlap under the fovea of the reader. For the inclusive scenario, the same scene will be reproduced, but this time the slides will be formulated respecting several rules known to facilitate reading: use of a larger font size, increased spacing between
letters, and lines, short sentences. In this way, the crowding effect will still be present, reading difficulties will be reduced thanks to these adaptations of the text. As a consequence, we expect the reader to answer questions about the content of the presented slides at the end of the virtual lesson more easily. The content of the slides will be counterbalanced across participants.

For *Visuospatial Impairments* scenarios, a VR helmet will be used to immerse participants in 2 scenarios: the challenge scenario, which simulates a lack of coordination by reproducing unpredicted deviations that make the performance of the drawing task difficult, and the inclusive scenario, which shows an IT tool to be adopted to minimize reliance on motor abilities to solve the geometry task. In the challenge scenario, participants will be seated at a desk, and they will have to draw using a virtual pen the different geometric figures of rising difficulty presented on the board by the virtual professor. The virtual system will induce random deviations simulating errors due to lack of coordination of visuomotor movements. In the inclusive scenario, participants seated at a desk will have a virtual tablet in front of them that will allow them to use drawing assistance software that will show how allowing the use of appropriate IT can facilitate support and assist with drawing and writing, reducing reliance on visual-motor coordination to solve the task.

For the *Learned Helplessness* scenarios, a 360° camera will be used to record 2 scenarios: the challenge scenario, in which a feeling of helplessness and failure to handle and control what's going on will be induced; and the inclusive scenario, in which all the practices that can help resolve this state of mind will be discussed. In the challenge scenario, the participant will experience a lesson in which, because of the difficulty of the task to be performed, he will experience a feeling of learned helplessness. Conversely, he will see all the other actors in the virtual scenario succeed in the task, experiencing a feeling of inability to manage and control what is happening around him. We would then be going to propose as in Charisse Nixon's most classic experiment, the resolution of some anagrams by asking the participants to raise their hands in the moment of successful solution. However, only anagrams that are impossible to solve will be proposed to the participant, showing instead the other participants in the virtual room raising their hand in sign of successful accomplishment of the task. For the inclusive scenario, on the other hand, the inclusive teaching practices that could help to reduce the sense of learned helplessness will be discussed, showing how support for those who have generally felt this way after experiencing difficulties in school integration due to their learning disabilities is caused by a failure to understand their difficulties resulting from inadequate teaching practices.

## 2.4 Procedure

After having been informed in writing and having had the opportunity to talk with the experimenter, who will answer any questions, each participant will sign an informed consent form containing all the information on the study, including information to voluntarily withdraw from the study at any time. All participants (n=90) will complete the assessment of educational practices, knowledge of learning difficulties and empathy quotient (duration 15 min). They will be randomly assigned to three experimental groups (of 30 participants each): 1) Online training and IVR group, 2) Online-only training group, 3) Control group, who will not undergo any training (see Fig. 1).

All participants in group 1 will complete the perceived stress and self-esteem questionnaires before (10 min) and after (10 min) the IVR session. They will also wear the t-shirt-device to measure the perceived stress before (10 min), during (50 min) and after (10 min) the IVR session. Then they will complete the pre-test questionnaires (which will assess inclusive knowledge and practices, empathy) on the LimeSurvey platform, and will carry out the 4 IVR "challenge" scenarios designed to illustrate difficulties with cognitive overload, reading difficulties, visuomotor impairments and feelings of learned helplessness. Each scenario will last between 10 and 15 minutes, with a 5-minute break in between. After the IVR, they will then be invited to take part in a focus group during which they will discuss inclusive practices that could be put in place to deal with the situations experienced during IVR. At the end of the 20-minute discussion, they will complete the four virtual "inclusive" scenarios, in which they will be able to experiment with proposed solutions for inclusive practices in response to the challenges presented previously. At the end of this procedure (duration: approx. 150 minutes), the equipment for measuring perceived stress will be removed and the session will be over. Participants will then begin the ≈6-hour online training course at home, taking in all the activities (videos, questionnaires, text to be read, etc.), and then answer the same questionnaires as in the pre-test 6 months later, via the LimeSurvey online survey platform.

Group 2 (Online-only training) will complete the questionnaires on the LimeSurvey platform during the pre-test. Following the pre-test, they will start online training. Six months later, they will complete the same questionnaires as part of the post-test. Group 3 (Control) will respond to the same questionnaires via LimeSurvey during the pre-test, and then 6 months later during the post-test.
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 1.** Study design illustrating the evaluation process of teaching practices, knowledge about learning difficulties, and empathizing quotient in three groups: the no training control group, the online-only training group, and the online plus immersive virtual reality (IVR) training group. Pre-and post-test assessments will be conducted over a six-month period, with additional measures of stress and self-esteem introduced in the IVR training group.</figcaption></figure>

## 3 Results (Expected)

Our main hypothesis is that Group 1 of Online and IVR training will become more effective in inclusive pedagogical practices than the other two groups: university teachers will have more knowledge and more inclusive practices than before (i.e., their practices will be better able to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities). This effect will be stronger in the Online plus IVR training group than in the Online-only or Control training groups.

In addition, we expect the effect in the Online and IVR training group to be modulated by the increase in perceived and felt stress and the decrease in self-esteem experienced after the challenge scenarios. We will therefore verify that university teachers experience more stress and lower self-esteem as a result of the challenges. We will also compare the stress levels experienced during the challenging scenarios with those of the inclusive scenarios. These indicators will determine the impact of immersion into a virtual reality environment. We hypothesize that the "inclusive" scenarios will reduce stress and provide actionable strategies, fostering confidence in implementing inclusive practices.

Data analyses will focus on comparisons of perceived stress and self-esteem scores and measures of perceived stress (heart rate and respiratory rate) obtained in the pre- and post-training phases. These analyses will aim to assess the effectiveness of training on educational practices, understanding of learning difficulties, and levels of empathy, in addition to the impact of challenging and inclusive scenarios on stress and self-esteem levels.

For the Teaching Practices and Knowledge questionnaire, differences between the groups will be analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA and paired t-tests (depending on data distribution and sample size). In particular, we will go on to analyze the differences between the groups: for the trained groups, the pre-training scores of the "online training with IVR" and "online-only training" groups will be compared with the post-training scores obtained 6 months later. We will use interaction tests (two-factor ANOVA with repeated measures) to identify whether online training with IVR is associated with better scores than online-only training.
For the Control Group, questionnaire scores will be included to confirm the absence of significant change in the absence of training, using comparison tests between the intervention and control groups.

For the Psychophysiological Stress, Perceived Stress and Self-Esteem dates, we hypothesize that "challenge" scenarios will increase perceived stress and reduce self-esteem, while "inclusive" scenarios will mitigate these effects. We will go on to measure the impact of the challenge and inclusive scenarios: levels of perceived stress (psychophysiological and self-reported) and self-esteem will be measured before and after the challenge scenarios for the online training group with IVR. Differences will be analyzed using mean comparison tests (paired t-test or Wilcoxon for non-normal distributions). We expect to observe higher levels of perceived stress and lower self-esteem after the challenge scenarios, indicating their disruptive effect. Specifically for the psychophysiological assessment of perceived stress levels, this will be measured in four phases: before and after the challenge scenarios
and before and after the inclusive scenarios. Changes between these phases will be examined using repeated
measures ANOVA to determine whether stress increases significantly during the challenge scenarios and
decreases during the inclusive scenarios. We expect to see an increase in stress levels during the challenging
scenarios, followed by a decrease during the inclusive scenarios, which would validate the effectiveness of both
types of scenarios.

Moreover, for further control and validation of the results exploratory analysis and bias correction will be
carried out. Exploratory analyses will be conducted to check the normality of the data, presence of outliers, and
homogeneity of variances. If necessary, transformations or nonparametric tests will be used to ensure the validity
of comparisons. Correlation analyses may be conducted to explore the relationships between improved teaching
practices, knowledge of learning difficulties and stress levels, thus providing a more integrated understanding of
the impacts of training.

This methodology will allow the initial hypotheses to be validated and the differential impact of training to be assessed, while providing a detailed analysis of the effects of challenging and inclusive scenarios on participants' stress and self-esteem.

4 Discussion and Implications

At this stage, we are presenting our research proposal to spark interest and gather feedback from the academic community. Our aim is to highlight the potential of immersive virtual reality (IVR) in fostering inclusive teaching practices and to actively involve stakeholders in shaping the future of this innovative approach.

This study could make significant theoretical contributions by examining the impact of IVR-based teacher
training on inclusive education. Specifically, it builds upon cognitive theories of learning and teacher development
[34, 35] to assess how immersive simulations can enhance educators' understanding of students with learning
difficulties.

From a practical perspective, this study explores the development and implementation of training methods that can be applied in higher education settings. By integrating IVR and online learning, the training program is designed to be modular, accessible, and adaptable to various teaching contexts. Furthermore, the study provides a structured framework that university administrators can use to promote inclusive teaching strategies. The benefits of immersing teachers in the lived experiences of students with disabilities will be improvements in the educational practices adopted by participants, greater awareness of the cognitive difficulties students may encounter, and greater empathy towards students with special educational needs. Participants will benefit from the acquisition of new knowledge on learning difficulties and inclusive educational practices, which could enrich their professional skills. These theoretical and practical contributions are intended to provide them with a more knowledgeable perspective to better understand and respond to the diverse needs of students. Although challenging scenarios can lead to a slight increase in stress, they offer a safe space to explore strategies for managing difficult educational situations, potentially beneficial in a real-life context. Inclusive scenarios, on the other hand, aim to provide a positive and encouraging experience.

Furthermore, the project aims to contribute to the theoretical debate on the ethical implications and
effectiveness of disability simulations in educational contexts. The use of IVR to simulate the challenges faced
by students with disabilities raises ethical concerns. Some research suggests that simulations, if not designed
appropriately, may reinforce negative stereotypes rather than foster empathy [16-18]. To mitigate this risk, our
approach incorporates specific pedagogical strategies to guide educators through structured learning experiences,
ensuring that participants develop a deeper, evidence-based understanding of student difficulties rather than
relying on preconceived notions. In addition, as part of the INCLUDE project, we have had the opportunity to
periodically consult with education experts and experts of cognitive psychology and have engaged with
individuals and family members of people with disabilities to receive feedback on our IVR scenarios to ensure
that they accurately reflect real-world challenges. This participatory approach helps to maintain the authenticity
and educational value of the training program while avoiding misrepresentation of disability experiences.
Furthermore, prior to full implementation, we conducted pilot tests to evaluate the clarity, impact, and
effectiveness of the IVR scenarios.

These steps ensure that the training program does not just simulate disability experiences but provides
meaningful insights into the barriers faced by students and the strategies needed to foster inclusion.

The purpose of presenting this research now is to generate interest, receive academic feedback, and foster
potential collaborations. By engaging in the academic community at this stage, we aim to refine our methodology
and ensure that the training program meets the needs of educators and students alike.
Additionally, this presentation serves as a call for institutional partnerships. Future research stages will involve large-scale implementation, and we seek to collaborate with universities that are interested in piloting and evaluating the training program.

## 4.1 Challenges and Future Directions

While IVR offers significant advantages, challenges include ensuring accessibility for all participants and sustaining motivation for non-mandatory training programs. Future research could explore longitudinal impacts of IVR training on teacher-student interactions.

# 5 Conclusion

This research highlights the potential of combining IVR and online training to create significant, lasting changes in teaching practices. By equipping faculty with the tools and empathy needed to support students with learning disabilities, we aim to foster more inclusive and supportive learning environments in higher education.

Through this research, we aim to enrich the field of inclusive pedagogy by demonstrating the potential of IVR as a tool to transform educational practices and enhance the academic success of students with disabilities and learning difficulties. This study highlights the potential of IVR-based training to transform inclusive teaching practices in higher education. By immersing educators in the challenges faced by students with disabilities, the program fosters greater empathy, awareness, and practical skills for inclusive teaching. Moving forward, our next steps include: 1) finalizing and refining the IVR scenarios based on pilot testing feedback; 2) conducting the full-scale study with 90 university educators; 3) analyzing the impact of the training program on teaching practices and student outcomes; 4) ultimately, this research contributes to the broader conversation on innovative teacher training methods, ethical considerations in disability simulations, and the role of IVR in fostering inclusive education.

## Acknowledgments

This project is supported by France 2030 under the ANR-21-DMES-0005 program. We thank the consortium of universities and the participating faculty for their contributions.

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