Acceptance and Effectiveness of a Virtual Reality Public Speaking Training Virtual Reality (VR) has been gaining importance due to its numerous advantages as an immersive technology for learning applications. Next to being used in fields like manufacturing, transportation, communication, retail and real estate, it has also increased in significance for human resources development. Virtual human training programs offer exposure to difficult situations without supervision in a safe and controlled environment, as they simulate nuanced interpersonal situations and therefore allow users to gain new skills and apply them to reallife situations. Furthermore, VR training engages employees in a training session by being presented with a realistic situation designed to challenge and engage them. Practising in a controlled virtual environment also allows for easy and objective measurements of user development and the identification of strengths and weaknesses. In this paper, we evaluate if there is acceptance for practising a presentation in a VRSpeech Training (VRST) session using six Degrees of Freedom (6DoF) and if the 44 participants of this study improved, from a subjective point of view, valuable soft skills needed to give a convincing presentation in real life. We observed a positive tendency in the acceptance and effectiveness of the VRST.

Was It Real?  The Effects of Virtual Reality Communication Skills Training Among University Students in India Virtual Reality (VR) technology enables students to be trained in new behaviour in an authentic and situated learning context. The pilot study investigated the effects of a scaffolded fiveminutes 360degree videobased VR training on communication skills, achievement emotions and motivation among university students in India. The results of an experimental trial with repeated measures show, except for a slight rise in positive emotions for the control group, no significant differences in the VRcondition. Nevertheless, students are highly convinced that VRtraining has the potential to improve their academic skills and performance. High acceptance of VRbased education and the potential to replace real education settings at university level were observed.