Empowering Equity in Education With Virtual Reality and Immersive Learning

The pandemic dramatically disrupted learning as we knew it. While that disruption widened gaps in access to education that already existed along racial, ethnic, and socio-economic lines, it also accelerated advances in innovation that could help close those gaps.

Immersive learning represents one of the most promising options for changing traditional approaches to education and closing achievement gaps.

In a Forbes column, Stephanie Nashawaty, chief customer innovation officer at SAP North America, announced that SAP and JFFLabs have launched an effort to introduce immersive learning to students across the country through a new initiative called the Skill Immersion Lab. Using software developed by Talespin, students in Skill Immersion Lab courses are engaging in immersive experiences using desktop computing systems and virtual reality (VR) platforms to strengthen their human skills—also called employability or “soft” skills—such as communication and leadership capabilities.

SAP and JFFLabs have rolled out Skill Immersion Lab programs at three sites that work with high-school-age learners:

• Business Technology Early College High School, Queens, New York
• Boys & Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities; St. Paul, Minnesota
• Quad YouthBuild, Hammond, Louisiana