Virtual offender: a pilot project on nurturing social work students’ capacity to work with offenders

ABSTRACT

Although considerable literature conducted in the context of Western societies has concluded that the use of virtual reality (VR) technology can facilitate students’ learning, the applicability of this learning approach to nurturing social work students in the Chinese context remains uncertain. This pilot study empirically tests the effectiveness of VR technology in enhancing social work students’ perceived creativity and competence in working with offenders. The study uses mixed methods that include qualitative and quantitative procedures in a complementary manner. Survey data that capture the responses of 41 social work students collected in the pre-and post-test periods indicate a positive change in self-perceived confidence in handling offenders following the VR training session. The qualitative data generated from the focus groups echo the survey findings and provide insights into the use of VR technology in social work education. Issues and implications for innovative education in the social work profession are discussed.

纵使大量西方文献已肯定虚拟现实 (VR)技术能促进学生学习，这种学习方法应用在中国社会里的社会工作学生身上的适用性仍然未确定。本文阐述一项先导性的实验研究，通过实证测试虚拟现实技术是否能够有效提升社会工作学生的创造力和处理犯罪者的能力。本研究采用了定性和定量互补的混合研究方法。基于对 41 位社会工作学生参与者的前测以及后侧问卷调查，研究发现学生参与虚拟现实训练后对处理犯罪者的信心和个人创造力方面都有积极的改变。基于焦点小组所获得的定性数据也支持了问卷调查结果，并为社会工作教育中的 VR 技术使用提供了新的启发。本文最后讨论了社会工作专业创新教育的相关议题及启示。

KEYWORDS:

• Virtual reality
• creativity
• social work education
• working with offenders
• Hong Kong

Although the application of virtual reality (VR) to training and research has been increasing, the literature on the feasibility and effectiveness of using this technology in social work education is scant. VR was initially conceptualised in the 1950s and 1960s, and by the 2000s, VR technology was being applied to the mental health domain and clinical settings (Maples-Keller et al. 2017). Studies have demonstrated that VR can provide a standardised and controlled virtual environment for facilitating the effective treatment of anxiety disorders (Gebara et al. 2016; Parrish et al. 2016) and the abuse of substances such as heroin (Kuntze et al. 2001), cocaine (Saladin et al. 2006), and cannabis (Bordnick et al. 2009). In Hong Kong, VR technology has been applied to enhance the function and vocational cognitive outcomes of young ketamine users (Man 2018). Despite the growing volume of literature on the application of VR technology in social science, the question of whether VR technology can be incorporated in social work education in Hong Kong remains, particularly in terms of the knowledge and skill enhancement related to students’ perceived competence in working with offenders. The present study contributes to the literature by examining the differences in participants’ self-perceived social work competence and innovativeness between the pre- and after-programme periods and by analysing their qualitative feedback in focus group interviews. Their level of stimulation sickness and sense of presence in a VR environment are also examined.

Literature review

Use of VR in human service learning

VR has been extensively demonstrated to improve education and training (e.g. Baker, Wentz, and Woods 2009; Lee 2014; Pantelidis 2010). The rationale for using VR includes:

“Virtual communities provide a useful and safe medium for integration of cultural competence training in clinical education … Thus, responses can be practiced in realistic settings but without potentially threatening and frightening real-world consequences” (Lee 2014, 104).

The use of VR in human service training has numerous positive effects. For instance, VR helps social work students develop an awareness of their professional identities in their engagement with diversity in practice, familiarise themselves with human rights and social and economic justice issues, become involved in research-oriented practice and practice-oriented research, apply their knowledge of human behaviour to the social environment and respond appropriately to new contexts in VR (Vernon, Lewis, and Lynch 2009). VR offers an immersive learning environment in which students can educate themselves within a structured programme of self-directed courses (Anstadt, Bruster, and Girimurugan 2016).

Examples of successful applications include Second Life and virtual patients. Second Life is “a free open-access platform for users to create customisable virtual worlds using avatar-based technology and allows instructors to modify these platforms to suit the needs of their individual classes” (Washburn and Zhou 2018, 3). The effectiveness of Second Life in enhancing social work students’ cultural competences has been empirically supported (Lee 2014; Anstadt, Bruster, and Girimurugan 2016). Another example is the use of virtual patients to teach healthcare students foundational communication and professionalism skills in the process of caring for the patient (Adefila et al. 2018). When virtual patients are used in clinical training, numerous factors, including interactivity, ease of navigation, capability to accurately depict clinical scenarios, well-developed backstories and the availability to provide timely feedback, are vital for usability and clinical skill acquisition (Bateman et al. 2012; Cook, Erwin, and Triola 2010; Washburn and Zhou 2018). The successful experience generated from the healthcare profession is likely transplantable to the social work profession, as both require good communication skills and a contextual understanding of the environment. The feasibility of using the VR environment in human services seems to be supported in the Western context. It would be beneficial to determine whether similar results can be generated in Hong Kong, a city in the Chinese context.

Use of VR in research

The literature suggests that VR technology research has merits and strengths for research use. This technology provides extremely high control over the environment, and it can easily replicate study conditions using a less costly approach than traditional research approaches (Ticknor and Tillinghast 2011). “VEs (virtual elements) have the potential to reliably study social phenomena that are difficult to experimentally examine in the real world for either practical or ethical reasons” (Van Gelder et al. 2017, 35). VEs can also prevent violations of human subject guidelines for research that are considered conventionally unethical, such as placing subjects in high-risk situations (Thorton and Laws 2009). VR simulations can elicit specific responses for certain cues and enable the transfer of these responses to real-world situations without endangering subjects (Tichon 2007).

The risks and limitations of VR training have been discussed in the literature. VR has been considered a “coaching” situation rather than a “live” one (Didehbani et al. 2016). VR devices are also expensive, difficult to set up, and occasionally unreliable (Maples-Keller et al. 2017). The neglect of embodied interaction and the physical environment, risk content and privacy remains a concern (Madary and Metzinger 2016). VR players have reported simulation sickness, which can include eyestrain, headache, paleness, sweating, mouth dryness, disorientation and vertigo (Ticknor and Tillinghast 2011). The merits and limitations of VR are relevant to research activities using VR technology on human subjects, and social work education is no exception. The current study consolidates and discusses the experience of using VR technology for research in social work education in Hong Kong.

Social work education in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has been a Special Administrative Region of China since 1997. In 2016, approximately 92% of the 7 million members of Hong Kong’s population were of Chinese ethnicity (Census and Statistics Department, HKSAR 2017). Formal social work training has been provided in Hong Kong since the 1960s (Lai and Chan 2009). As at 22 March 2019, ten tertiary institutions in Hong Kong offered social work education at the undergraduate and/or Master’s levels (Social Workers Registration Board 2019). Although social work education in Hong Kong has been ongoing for over 60 years, effective and innovative teaching and learning remain in demand.

Previous studies have outlined the characteristics of Chinese learners in Chinese society. One study asserted that teaching and learning strategies in Chinese societies are nurtured by the Chinese philosophy of “vernacular Confucianism” (Chang 2000). This concept includes beliefs such as “children are spoiled if praised”, “scolding builds character”, “failure is the result of laziness” and “no pain, no gain”. These beliefs remain prevalent in Hong Kong but run counter to the optimal learning environment indicated by Western researchers (Watkins and Biggs 2001). Students in this system are taught to be rote and passive learners. However, social work students in Hong Kong are no longer treated as passive learners; students’ reflective and critical thinking capacity has been emphasised in social work education in Hong Kong. Over the past two decades, a number of social work educators in Hong Kong have adopted pedagogical elements driven by problem-based learning (Lam 2004), reflective learning (Leung 2007; Lam, Wong, and Leung 2007) and, recently, the combination of reflective learning and experimental learning (Lam, To., and Chan 2018). Comparatively, competency-based learning, which was introduced in social work education in the early 1990s (Galambos and Green 2006) and widely adopted in the West (Council on Social Work Education 2016; Damron-Rodriguez 2008; Nguyen and Foster 2018), has received less attention in local social work education. Only a few local literature is available (Li 2016; Wang and Chui 2017). Truly, in social work education, both reflective learning and competency-based learning shall deserve attention in social work education while traditional and innovative teaching modes can be utilised. A study of the learning styles of social work students in Hong Kong revealed that a student’s learning style is not a fixed trait but is subject to change over time as the environment changes, and the researchers proposed a more balanced curriculum with multiple learning modes (Tsang 1993). Scholars regard computer-assisted instruction and innovative web-based learning strategies as potentially effective tools (Williams, Brown, and Etherington 2013). In this study, VR technology is used as a new mode of social work teaching. This study uses competency-based learning with a focus on enhancing social work students’ competence in working with offenders. The experience and insights generated from this study can expand the horizons of social work education in Hong Kong.

Methods

The objective of the current study is to examine whether VR technology can be incorporated into social work education in Hong Kong, particularly in terms of knowledge and skill enhancement regarding students’ perceived competence in working with offenders. The data collection for this research was triangulated by adopting a mixed-methods approach involving (a) quantitative/survey items for identifying the pre- and post-study differences resulting from VR exposure on the social work competence of those working with offenders, their self-perceived creativity and their stimulation sickness, if any, following the training and (b) qualitative/focus group interviews to extract first-hand experiences of VR exposure.

Participants

All 41 participants were second-, third-, and final-year students in a Bachelor’s of Social Work programme in Hong Kong. Of these 41 students who participated in the VR session, 13 were males (32%) and 28 were females (68%). The mean age of the group was 20.78 years. Around 29% of the participants claimed to have a religious background. Moreover, 15% and 73% had a job and volunteer experience in a social work agency, respectively. All of the members of the group were ethnic Chinese. Among them, 15 students (7 males and 8 females) were willing to engage in focus group discussions shortly after their participation in VR training.

Procedures

The study was conducted under the ethical protocols (reference number HSEARS20180326014) approved by the affiliated university of the first author. An invitation letter and consent form were delivered to approximately 150 students in the social work programme through the faculty members in April 2018. The invitation letter contained information about the study background, possible risks, the voluntariness of participation, the data collection procedures and the measures used to protect the participants’ identities. Sixty students consented to participate in the project in April 2018, but our research team was not able to contact nine of them for data collection during the semester break. Thus, 51 students completed a self-administered survey questionnaire in May 2018 for the pre-test. Of these students, 41 participated in the VR training session and completed the questionnaire in June for the post-test. In the study, 41 participants who completed pre- and post-tests were included in the data analyses. Fifteen of these participants engaged in the focus group discussion. Participants who completed both tests were given HK$50 (= US$6) afterward as a participation incentive. Each focus group participant was awarded HK$50. Respondents spent an average of 20 minutes filling out the questionnaire, an each focus group meeting lasted approximately 1.5 hours.

Intervention

The current project seeks to enhance social work students’ competence in working with offenders with the supplemental use of VR technology. In a computer-simulated environment, four scenarios of criminal justice processes were shown: (a) offence and arrest, (b) making a statement and being cautioned in the police station, (c) attending court trials and (d) serving a custodial sentence. The VR programme lasted approximately 30 minutes. A VR system with a visual head-mounted display, surround-sound audio and tactile stimulators was used to create a fully immersive experience. The VR script was prepared by the research team, which was composed of faculty members across the fields of social work, criminology and computer sciences. To address concerns regarding the accuracy of the criminal justice scenarios depicted in the scripts, an expert group composed of law enforcement, offender rehabilitation and legal personnel met periodically to offer comments on the script.

The pre-and post-test survey interviews

This study empirically tested the effectiveness of VR technology at enhancing social work students’ perceived professional competence, creativity, stimulation sickness and sense of presence in a VR environment. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data before and after participation in the VR programme. In the questionnaire, 69 items were used to measure the changes in the outcome variables, and 25 items were used in the post-test to check the participants’ stimulation sickness and sense of presence. The perceived social work competence scale (PSWCS) developed and validated by Wang and Chui (2017) was used by the research team after the focus of the questions was narrowed from working with the general population to working with offenders. All of the participants were asked to provide their answers on a 5-point Likert-scale ranging from 1 (I am not confident at all that I can do this) to 5 (I am very confident I can do this) on nine dimensions (48 items) of perceived competence in working with offenders: (a) relationship formation (RF), (b) teamwork (TW), (c) professional knowledge development (PKD), (d) professional resilience development (PRD), (e) therapeutic and insight skills (TIS), (f) case management skills (CMS), (g) community work skills (CWS), (h) supportive skills (SS) and (i) professional values and ethics (PVE). This study confirmed the reliability of the scale, with an overall Cronbach’s alpha of .94 and a range from .75 to .93 for all of the dimensions (Table 1). Sample items for measuring relationship formation (RF) included ‘establish contact with clients’ and “provide relevant information and advice”. Those for measuring therapeutic and insights skills (TIS) included “helping clients to learn from their past experiences” and “helping clients to learn from past attempts to solve problems”.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics and paired sample T-tests (N = 41).

	T1 = before training (N = 41)			T2 = after training (N = 41)			Paired sample t-tests (Pair N = 41)
Outcome Variables	Mean	SD	α	Mean	SD	α	Mean of paired diff.	t-value
Creativity	3.44	0.42	0.86	3.52	0.52	0.92	−0.07	−1.01
PSWCS	31.17	3.04	0.84	32.67	3.89	0.94	−1.50	−3.12*
PSWCS-RF	3.29	0.57	0.78	3.58	0.50	0.81	−0.29	−3.21**
PSWCS-TW	3.74	0.58	0.88	3.82	0.55	0.85	−0.09	−1.03
PSWCS-PKD	3.55	0.46	0.74	3.63	0.47	0.75	−0.08	−1.02
PSWCS-PRD	3.17	0.72	0.89	3.33	0.62	0.78	−0.16	−1.32
PSWCS-TIS	3.41	0.36	0.85	3.62	0.50	0.93	−0.22	−3.11**
PSWCS-CMS	3.42	0.48	0.75	3.62	0.51	0.77	−0.20	−2.81**
PSWCS-CWS	3.27	0.41	0.74	3.49	0.52	0.87	−0.22	−2.82**
PSWCS-SS	3.65	0.42	0.74	3.79	0.51	0.77	−0.14	−2.03*
PSWCS-PVE	3.67	0.51	0.69	3.78	0.52	0.76	−0.11	−1.09
Presence	-	-	-	12.73	2.29	0.84	-	-
Presence-G	-	-	-	3.61	0.70	-	-	-
Presence-SP	-	-	-	3.44	0.63	0.67	-	-
Presence-INV	-	-	-	2.60	0.64	0.63	-	-
Presence-REAL	-	-	-	3.08	0.80	0.81	-	-
Stimulation sickness				0.85	.69	0.93	-	-

Notes: *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001. α = Cronbach’s alpha; PSWCS = Perceived social work competence scale (sum of all subscales); RF = relationship formation; TW = team work; PKD = professional knowledge development; PRD = professional resilience development; TIS = therapeutic and insight skills; CMS = case management skills; CWS = community work skills; SS = supportive skills; PVE = professional values and ethics; G = global presence; SP = spatial presence; INV = involvement; REAL = realness.

This study also examined the extent to which the participants’ creativity (innovativeness) was enhanced following the VR training. Students were asked to rate their perceived efficacy on 13 items (Yang and Cheng 2009) on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree (Table 1). The scale demonstrated high reliability in the current study, with a Cronbach’s alpha of .92. Sample questions included ‘I could be a good source of creative ideas’ and “I often have a fresh approach to a problem”.

Stimulation sickness was also addressed. A 12-item scale was used to measure stimulation sickness symptoms, such as general discomfort, fatigue, headache, eyestrain and blurred vision (Vlad et al. 2013). Respondents were asked to rate their levels of these symptoms on a four-point adjectival response category (none = 0, slight = 1, moderate = 2 and severe = 3).

The participants’ sense of presence in a virtual environment was examined using 11 items covering four dimensions: (a) spatial presence (SP), (b) involvement (INV), (c) realness (REAL) and (d) global presence (GI) after minor modification (Schubert, Friedmann, and Regenbrecht 2001; Vasconcelos-Raposo et al. 2016). The current study confirmed the reliability of the scale, with Cronbach’s alpha values ranging from .67 to .81 for the subscales.

Respondents’ demographic and background data were collected. Gender was a dummy variable (0 = Male; 1 = Female). Age was measured by the actual value. Respondents were asked about their religion (1 = Buddhist; 2 = Catholic; 3 = Protestant Christian; 4 = Taoist; 5 = No religion; 6 = Other). They were also invited to indicate whether they had worked in a social work agency or had volunteer experience (dummy variable: 1 = Yes; 2 = No).

The mean scores of self-perceived social work competence and creativity at the two time points were computed and compared. First, the descriptive data were presented through the means and standard deviation scores of each variable. Second, the paired sample t-test was conducted to confirm whether the VR training affected the two outcome variables across time (before and after the VR training session) and within subjects (a group of social work students).

Focus group meetings

The focus group approach is an economical, fast and efficient method for obtaining data from multiple participants (Krueger and Casey 2000), and it can help participants feel safe to share information (Vaughn, Schumm, and Sinagub 1996). The current study captured the students’ immediate comments and insights following their participation in the VR training in a convenient and easy way using focus group discussion. All of the focus group meetings were held in a room next to the VR training venue at the university library, where the participants were assured of a quiet environment for their in-depth discussions. Each meeting lasted 45 minutes to 1 hour. Four focus group meetings were conducted with four, four, three and five student participants, respectively. Eight female and seven male students offered their views with the facilitation of two moderators who had attended a briefing session by the researcher (also the first author).

A one-page interview guide was used to collect data on (a) the overall experiences of participation in this VR project, (b) the benefits of participation, (c) the difficulties encountered during the project and (d) the potential application of VR in the social work profession. The interview process was interactive and collaborative. With the consent of the interviewees, all of the interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed in Chinese. The quotations in the manuscript were translated from Chinese to English with grammatical amendments. The first author developed the coding framework by creating themes on the items of the interview guide and on the new categories derived from a review of all of the scripts (Alhojailan 2012). The interview scripts were coded by a research assistant and confirmed by the first author. Because the focus group discussions covered straightforward questions and responses, a simple content analysis of the full scripts is sufficient.

Quantitative data

As shown in Table 1, data collected pre- and post-test surveys indicated that the student participants showed enhanced self-perceived competence in working with offenders but not enhanced perceived creativity. The participants exhibited minimal signs of stimulation sickness.

For the participants’ overall change in their perceived social work competence (PSWC) in working with offenders, the mean scores for the post-test were significantly higher than their respective pre-test scores on the statistical tests (for all repeated-sample t-tests, t = −3.12, p < .05). The gains ranged from −.08 to −.22. Significant differences between the pre- and post-test scores were found on five dimensions: relationship formation (RF) (t = −3.21, p < .01), therapeutic and insight skills (TIS) (t = −3.11, p < .01), community work skills (CWS) (t = −2.82, p < .01), case management skills (CMS) (t = −2.81, p < .01) and supportive skills (SS) (t = −2.03, p < .05).

As presented in Table 1, the participants’ level of presence (a sense of “being there”) during the VR session was relatively higher than the mid-points for global presence (GP) (M = 3.61, SD = .70), special presence (SP) (M = 3.44; SD = .63), realness (REAL) (M = 3.08; SD = .80) and involvement (INV) (M = 2.60; SD = .64). The data indicated that the participants did not suffer from stimulation sickness (M = .85; SD = .69).

Qualitative data

The qualitative data from the focus groups yielded the following themes, which illustrate the participants’ first-hand VR training experience. Their responses help explain the positive changes in their perceived competence in dealing with offenders demonstrated in the quantitative study.

Overall experience in the VR experiment

The participants found that this VR project enhanced their cognitive and empathic understanding of the criminal justice system and offenders’ incarceration life. They also shared the view found in the literature that VR technology makes studying more cost-effective (Maples-Keller et al. 2017; Parrish et al. 2016).

‘The experience (of taking part in this VR session) was positive. It is rare for us to experience the complete criminal justice procedure, from crime commission, attending a court trial and serving sentence in prison. It is a brand-new experience for me’. (1-A)

‘I could share the feeling of young prisoners. For instance, I could imagine how tough prison life is, e.g. mowing under hot weather is really harsh’. (1-B).

‘I believe VR technology is a cost-effective means for people to experience different things. People can save their money and time for travelling around different sites. Instead, they only need to stay indoors’. (2-B)

Benefits of participation

The qualitative data indicate that the student participants could associate their VR experience with their social work skills and knowledge enhancement. For instance, VR training could better prepare them for fieldwork and social work practice in the future, particularly in terms of their understanding of offenders. These answers explain the survey finding that the participants had increased confidence in relationship formation and therapeutic insight along with their increased knowledge of the offender’s circumstances.

‘Different from listening to other people’s elaboration, VR technology can bring me a first-person experience, e.g. hearing what people say in a court trial, knowing where the defender is standing, knowing the detailed procedure of being admitted to prison. This VR package lets me have the first-hand experience of imprisonment which is totally different from listening to the story of others’. (1-C)

‘As a social worker, I need to have a comprehensive understanding of the prison life so as to present a true picture to the prisoner’s family and help release them from unnecessary worry’. (1-B)

‘This is a great experience. This VR package can prepare me for my coming fieldwork placement in a service unit serving at-risk youths’. (2-D)

Areas for improvement

One of the objectives was to consolidate experiences of using VR technology in social work education. The participants’ insights are certainly helpful for future development. In the project, the participants were able to identify areas for the improvement of VR training. However, overcoming technical barriers and developing more sophisticated technological backup are necessary.

‘There was a problem on the sound. I could not hear clearly the part on a court trial. No ideas with what the barrister said. In addition, the court trial seems too long and boring’. (1-C)

‘It could be better if the VR package could have more interactive scenarios so that I can have a deeper understanding of the client (offender)’. (2-A)

Potential applications of VR (including SW practices)

Students’ VR experience in this project was inspiring and stimulating. To better prepare for working with offenders, the students discussed the possible use of VR technology in crisis management, which is challenging for social workers with limited field experience. The students indicated that VR exposure can effectively prepare them cognitively and tactically to tackle scenarios involving clients with mental health issues and those attempting suicide or engaging in violent behaviour. The students’ perceived case management skills were enhanced through a VR home visit scenario. The quantitative and qualitative data were complementary and consistent.

‘It is worth considering a VR package that can let the audience experience the life of patients with mental illness, e.g. the illusion and hallucination. This enables people to have a deeper understanding of this population’. (1-A)

‘VR technology can facilitate our case study learning, for which the family circumstances, living environment, and responses of clients can be shown in detail’. (2-B)

‘It is worth considering having a VR package to enhance our competence in crisis intervention, e.g. encountering violence during a home visit, handling a person who attempts suicide by jumping from the height, or encountering gang fighting’. (3-C)

Feedback collected through focus group meetings echoes the survey findings: VR technology can facilitate social work learning. In particular, students can use it to enhance their competencies, such as relationship formation skills, therapeutic and insight skills, case management skills, community work skills and supportive skills necessary for working with offenders.

Discussion

Implications for social work education and practice

This pilot study not only supported the feasibility of applying VR technology to assist social work students’ learning for handling offenders but also provided us with valuable insights into the key elements of social work education through the innovative use of VR technology. Three “I’s” are concluded from this study regarding the basic elements of the effective and innovative use of technology in social work education:

Involvement

This project involved current students in the social work and computer game development fields for script writing, casting in stories, video shooting and game development. It helped incorporate learner (end-user) perspectives and innovativeness in education and to facilitate student participation in the current study. The involvement of criminal justice practitioners (including prison officers, police officers, solicitors and social work supervisors) in expert group meetings and video production is another unique aspect of this project. The stakeholder perspective can be incorporated into teaching and learning through their involvement. This echoes the point that stakeholders’ (including employers’) views are crucial for designing social work program curricula (Goodyer and Higgins 2010).

Intertwining

Nurturing students’ transversal and transferrable competencies should be the foundation for tertiary education in the 21^st century. If students are equipped with transversal competency, they can easily participate in the inter-disciplinary collaboration that has been an increasing in the workplace. This project exposed social work students to the criminal justice procedure and practices (e.g. from the arrest, providing statements to the police, attending court trial and serving sentences) that can be difficult to acquire in a normal classroom or out-of-classroom learning. In this case, VR technology definitely expanded social work students’ horizon of learning.

Interfacing

This project combined the knowledge and skills of multiple disciplines, from computer sciences and social work to criminal justice, in different stages. The inter-disciplinary team ensured the project with high feasibility and a comprehensive perspective. The results also indicated that the student participants would be able to apply their current VR experience to their future fieldwork and service delivery. The VR technology used in this project seems to be able to accommodate the shifting nature of social work students’ learning style (Tsang 1993) and to bridge classroom learning and fieldwork learning.

Despite the encouraging results generated by this project, a number of barriers and challenges to applying VR technology for active learning in tertiary education are noteworthy. First, the use of VR technology in tertiary education in Hong Kong is in its infancy. Resources, knowledge, technology and momentum are always in demand, but are limited. The literature has recognised that VR devices are expensive, difficult to set up and occasionally unreliable (Maples-Keller et al. 2017), and our research team encountered a similar set of problems. Second, managing active learning with VR technology requires the project leader to be competent in programme coordination (across disciplines) and community networking with different sectors (police department, correctional service department and social work agencies), which is demanding. Finally, resistance and scepticism from individual social work practitioners who consider VR or AI technology inappropriate for human services may hinder the application of VR technology in teaching and practice.

Implications for future research

Despite the contributions of the data to the expansion of knowledge in social work education, several limitations and suggestions for improvement should be noted. First, the present study is exploratory in nature and is limited by its sample size (N = 41) and the sample frame (social work students in a single university in Hong Kong). The generalisability of the research findings to students of other disciplines or to those in other universities or cities is unclear. A comparison of students across disciplines and localities can generate additional valuable findings. Second, the findings are based on a before-and-after comparison of one treated group categorised at Level 2 on the Maryland Scientific Methods Scale (SMS) (Sherman et al. 1998). Without a control group comparison, it is unclear whether the effect is from the treatment or from external factors, such as personal and training background. Moreover, without follow-up tests, it is uncertain whether the treatment’s effect can be sustained over time. Future research on the application of VR in social work training should incorporate randomised control trial methods and include long-term follow-up assessment. Finally, the preliminary version of the VR design can only allow a simple interaction between a virtual environment and participants. A more sophisticated design may result in larger treatment effects.

Conclusion

This study is one of the first attempts to explore the potential of VR technology to supplement social work education in Hong Kong. Both quantitative and qualitative data have indicated that most social work students are ready to receive professional training that incorporates digital technology. It thus deserves recognition and support in future research and practice development.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.