Transforming Virtual Reality Simulation Logs into Pedagogically Interpretable Evidence

The digital transformation of higher education requires assessment approaches capable of capturing complex learning processes. In teacher education, immersive virtual reality (VR) simulations generate multimodal records, yet transforming them into pedagogically meaningful evidence for assessing classroom-management competence remains challenging. This methodological pilot study examines Mission Control–Didascalias VC, an analytics infrastructure for classroom-management simulations. Of 626 sessions, 595 were retained in the cleaned analytical corpus. Data sources comprised session metadata, verbal interactions, programmed challenging events, vocal and movement signals, dashboard exports and, for 17 focal cases, video recordings and transcripts. The analysis examined data quality, traceability and interpretability, developed and refined a multimodal coding framework, and included a worked example of sequence-based coding. Results show that simulation records do not constitute assessment evidence in themselves. Their formative value emerges through cleaning, temporal alignment, multimodal triangulation and contextual interpretation, which transform isolated technical traces into pedagogically meaningful interactional sequences. Critical verbal interactions, participant responses, emergent classroom situations, and vocal and movement patterns provided complementary evidence, including in sessions without programmed challenging events. The study concludes that VR analytics can support sustainable formative assessment when technical records are transformed into pedagogically interpretable interactional evidence for debriefing, feedback and evidence reuse over time.