A Virtual Reality Approach to Public Speaking Training in Higher Education

This research-to-practice full paper describes the use of Virtual Reality (VR) as a pedagogical tool for public speaking training in higher education. Addressing the limitations of traditional training methods and existing digital tools, a theory-driven VR environment was designed to support authentic, low-risk practice through immersive and interpretable feedback. The system integrates interactive virtual audiences powered by Large Language Models and Text-to-Speech, alongside multimodal analytics based on speech, acoustic, and body movement features. Using a mixed-method comparative case study with 60 students from two European universities (UK and Belgium), the study combines quantitative questionnaires and qualitative interviews to assess learning outcomes, usability, and immersion. Findings indicate that VR-based public speaking training enhances skill development, self-reflection, confidence, and engagement. Grounded in experiential learning theory, the study adopts an immersive learning framework to link technological suitability, immersion, and learning processes, offering transferable theoretical and practical contributions for the design of VR environments supporting public speaking training across educational disciplines