JFF’s Alex Swartsel and Kristina Francis in “Designing an Equitable Future for Immersive Learning”

The use of immersive learning technology as a training tool is increasing at schools and workplaces across the country, promising a faster and more democratized mode of teaching people new skills. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies—together known as extended reality—can support the development of both in-demand technical skills and foundational skills like communication.

In an opinion column they wrote for Chief Learning Officer, Jobs for the Future’s Alex Swartsel and Kristina Francis outline ways to ensure that immersive learning technologies are designed and implemented equitably.

To illustrate how this can be done, they discuss JFF’s Skill Immersion Lab initiative. The product of a JFF partnership with SAP and immersive learning provider Talespin, the Skill Immersion Lab offers professional skills training to high school students who co-design their own culturally responsive VR learning modules. Swartsel and Francis also mention pilots JFF has designed in partnership with Meta to demonstrate how small and medium-sized businesses can improve their competitiveness by using AR and VR technologies to upskill their workers.