Instructional Support Specialist Steven Sturman, Assistant Professor Mickey Sperlich, Clinical Associate Professor Louanne Bakk, and ITTIC Project Manager Samantha Koury on the publish article, "Development of an Immersive Virtual Reality Learning Environment: Integrating Trauma-Informed Principles into Human Service Agency Settings"

Kudos to Instructional Support Specialist Steven Sturman, Assistant Professor Mickey Sperlich, Clinical Associate Professor Louanne Bakk, and ITTIC Project Manager Samantha Koury on the publication of their article, "Development of an Immersive Virtual Reality Learning Environment: Integrating Trauma-Informed Principles into Human Service Agency Settings" in the Journal of Technology in Human Services.

Sturman, S., Sperlich, M., Bakk, L., & Koury, S. (2021). Development of an immersive virtual reality learning environment: Integrating trauma-informed principles into human service agency settings. Journal of Technology in Human Services. 

This article details the creation of a Virtual Reality Learning Environment (VRLE) designed to educate students on how trauma-informed (TI) principles can be integrated into the physical environments of human service agencies. Virtual Reality (VR) technologies and characteristics that have the potential to improve student learning outcomes are reviewed. The integration of VR into a social work doctoral program is described, and the theoretical and pedagogical considerations that informed the creation of the TI VRLE are explored. Details of the process of developing and assessing the TI VRLE are discussed, together with lessons learned and directions for future research.