Higher Education (HE) graduates are expected to demonstrate strong communication skills and apply them with confidence in high-pressure, real-world situations. A central challenge for educators is identifying effective strategies to help students not only practice these skills but also build resilience and confidence in using them.

This presentation will share details of an international project between Ireland and Canada which examines how immersive technologies, specifically virtual reality (VR), can be utilised to enhance the development of communication skills. Guided by the project mentors, academic leaders carried out an action research (AR) project (McNiff, 2013) with their students, capturing their feedback at the end of each action research cycle, to inform the design of the learning experience using VR. Two AR cycles have been completed to date and the presentation will include findings from student surveys, academic leaders' reflective logs and user-generated data available on the VR platforms.

The project is informed by key literature in immersive learning. For example Queiroz et al. (2025), argues that the use of virtual reality to develop communication skills has shown promising results. Noting that virtual reality provides authentic, immersive learning simulations, the study claims that participants’ emotional and behavioural involvement increased as a result of using virtual reality for communication skills training. Helle et al. (2025) conducted a qualitative study with health and social care students to explore the use of virtual reality for individual learning, concluding that VR had significant potential in enhancing professional competencies. The potential of virtual reality to develop nursing students’ communication skills was explored by Shorey et al. (2020), who concluded that VR enhanced student confidence and preparedness for clinical performance. However, the study also noted that challenges were associated with poor speech recognition and conversation flow, which impacted the overall experience for students. These were important considerations for the present study.

Additionally, identifying where immersive learning experiences with VR fit within the curriculum was a key factor in promoting student engagement (McDermott et al., 2024). The presentation will also share considerations from the research on aligning the chosen immersive learning pathway with core competencies required by students, and reflections on using VR as part of an international project team.