The use of virtual environments and on-line collaboration tools are rapidly growing. Educators and researchers are working together on designing virtual environments, for not only delivering the content, but also offering virtual facilities to practice newly learned skills, thus improving the effectiveness of the course. Immersive virtual environment designed for this study is tested within the framework of a course on domestic violence for students coming from different backgrounds (nurses, police officers, emergency response professionals, etc). Avatar based immersive virtual environment offers a classroom with multi media access and different simulation environments, such as children aid office, police station, government heath office. These simulation environments are used for new learned skills to be practiced within scenarios presented to students and submit their recorded group act to be evaluated. Students can also be digitally followed within the environment for data to be analyzed later to gain better understanding of the common behavior and practices to improve the effectiveness of the course and the virtual environment. The experience shows that our virtual environment is effective not only in providing the educational experience but also in collecting data otherwise not available.

No abstract