Virtual Environment Teaches Classroom Strategies in Turbulent Times for Future Educators

What happens when you bring together a class of student and early-career teachers, a self-proclaimed puppeteer, and five teen avatars? You create an effective practice environment for educators to work on de-escalating classroom disagreements.

Every day, teachers lead classrooms filled with pupils with different backgrounds and beliefs. When tempers flare, the learning environment can suffer. In SMU’s Mursion Simulation Environment, located in the Simmons School of Education and Human Development, undergraduate and graduate students learn to manage those conflicts by interacting with teen avatars.

Their names? Ava, Dev, Ethan, Jasmine and Savannah. But the secret behind the avatars’ distinctive personalities is not meerly clever programming – it’s Assistant Director of the Simmons Center for VR Learning Innovation and Simulation Specialist Stacy Ann Strang. Before coming to SMU, this “digital puppeteer” and Simulation Designer worked as both an actress and voiceover artist.

Avatars as unpredictable as their human counterparts

When student teachers enter the mixed reality simulation environment, they are introduced to the five on-screen avatars in a classroom setting. The simulation can see the teachers and, more importantly, their facial expressions and body language as they interact with the avatars.

It's Strang, combined with artificial intelligence, designing how the avatars’ engage in the educator’s lesson – meaning the simulation can be adjusted and respond in real-time. And these digital teens are just as unpredictable as their human counterparts. They fall asleep, sneak looks at their cell phones or suddenly become overwhelmed when one of their avatar classmates says something they perceive as offensive.

“In feedback teachers often cite classroom management as a big challenge, but it’s a skillset you obviously can’t develop using real kids,” said Strang. “Practicing in the simulation environment gives future and current teachers opportunities to develop their interpersonal skills to keep kids on track for learning. Having to address a misbehaving or upset avatar pushes educators out of their comfort zone and they can see how well their chosen reaction strategy works.”

Learning classroom management without the intimidation factor

Prior to using the Mursion Simulation Environment, teachers could only practice conflict resolution or classroom management through role playing with peers. The eventual transition to real classrooms can feel extremely intimidating for first-timers. Strang collaborates with several faculty members across the SMU campus, including assistant professor Jeanna Wieselmann, at various stages of simulation planning and execution.

“I like to bring sections of my class into the lab to observe a peer teaching so we can then pause the simulation at different times for reflective discussions” said Wieselmann. “We look at which responses worked well, those that fell short and ways to improve. Even my faculty peers and I use the simulation from time to time so we can practice modeling the educator behaviors required for successful teaching. Those skills need to be part of every teacher’s muscle memory – and that comes from practice.”

In addition to classroom management, the Mursion Simulation Environment is used for other areas of academic training, leadership, counseling, and more.

About SMU

SMU is the nationally ranked global research university in the dynamic city of Dallas.  SMU’s alumni, faculty and more than 12,000 students in eight degree-granting schools demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit as they lead change in their professions, communities and the world.

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