Addressing Emotions and Beliefs for Vulnerable Jobseekers with Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) technologies have been shown to impact the affective and motivational dimensions of learning, for example increasing learners’ enjoyment, confidence, and self-efficacy beliefs. While VR is increasingly being used for workforce development, research on these dimensions of learning in authentic workforce development contexts remains thin. This mixed-method case study addressed the need for more research on VR’s affordances for engaging affective dimensions of learning. We investigated the impact of a job interview VR simulation on the emotions, confidence, and self-efficacy beliefs of jobseekers who have been impacted by the criminal justice system. By observing the implementation of this application in an authentic workforce development context, we also addressed questions about how VR use and facilitation vary among participants. We find compelling evidence that a VR job interview simulation tailored to the experiences of people impacted by the criminal justice system can alleviate some of the emotional toll the job search takes on this vulnerable population, but we did not find evidence of changes in their self-efficacy beliefs. We discuss ways participants described the simulation as authentic practice, and how its facilitation and use varied, emphasizing the importance of VR design as a tool within a broader instructional context.