Uncharted Territories: Exploring Virtual Reality–Artificial Intelligence Integration in Social Work Education

A virtual reality simulation (VRS) is a high-fidelity simulation that replicates and recreates real-life events and work contexts to allow practitioners and students to learn social work practice in a safe setting without endangering others. Furthermore, this mode of training allows practitioners and students to practice indefinitely until they learn the material. So far, research on VRS in social work education has shown potential benefit, notably in assisting practitioners and students in solving problems, evaluating risks, making decisions, and thinking critically and reflectively. This chapter presents a research study that investigated how social work educators used a VRS to teach social work students to understand the nature, process, and intersectionality of different forms of discrimination such as racism, Islamophobia, sexism, and poverty at the individual, interpersonal, and institutional levels, as well as how they need to confront these discriminations in their social work practice. The chapter highlights the advantages and disadvantages of implementing a VRS, as well as a path forward to make VRS more effective by using a revolutionary technology called generative artificial intelligence. The inclusion of artificial intelligence with a VRS would make it more realistic and immersive. This is a new yet disruptive technology that has already demonstrated potential for improving practice.