Bridging Real and Virtual Worlds: A study on 21st century skills in VR

This research introduces a novel framework to evaluate communication and collaboration skills within virtual reality (VR)—skills recognized as essential 21st-century competencies across disciplines. Traditional assessment methods often rely on subjective observations and lack the precision to capture non-verbal nuances effectively. In contrast, VR offers a controlled, immersive environment, enabling a structured and consistent approach to study these complex behaviours. Our framework leverages VR's advanced tracking capabilities—such as eye-tracking, facial expression analysis, and gesture recognition—to capture real-time interactions. We designed a collaborative task where two individuals work together to complete a 3D puzzle as quickly as possible. This setup generates sensor-based data, capturing markers of eye contact, joint attention, one-way gaze, and specific gestures (e.g., pointing, thumbs up/down, and stop/wait). These markers allow us to observe the intricate dynamics of communication and collaboration in a measurable way. However, interpreting these markers is challenging. Our initial findings reveal no straightforward correlation between task completion speed and these interaction markers, highlighting the complexity of creating meaning from raw data alone. Without established baselines or guidelines to define "positive" versus "non-positive" behaviours, it becomes difficult to assess skill proficiency accurately. Current literature lacks detailed standards for these competencies within VR, underscoring the need to develop a dedicated rubric to guide further analysis and establish meaningful benchmarks. This study embraces the subjectivity inherent in communication skills, using it to inform our objective analysis. Our findings underscore VR's potential as a powerful tool for training and assessing interpersonal skills, with promising applications in educational and professional development contexts.