Reflexive Multisensory Immersive Environment for Chemical Risk Training – RENFORCE

Chemical risk training is mainly based on theoretical pedagogical activities which are not sufficient to acquire the behavioral skills necessary to anticipate risks in real situations. Immersive virtual environments have demonstrated beneficial effects for training usually explained by a higher degree of immersion and engagement than non VR situations, thanks to a stronger embodied experience. However, their design and usage still raise scientific issues such as an under-exploitation of the multi-sensory aspect, and a lack of support of self-reflection processes on the immersive experience to enhance learning. In this context, this project aims to (1) understand to what extent multisensory stimuli improve learner engagement and immersion, through the enhancement of the embodied experience, and how it improves learner performances in chemical risk training; (2) understand how the visualization of behavioral and psychophysiological data during and after the VR experience can improve learner reflexivity and learning; (3) integrate and evaluate the scientific and technological results from (1) and (2) into prototypes for immersive chemical risk training, tested and validated in ecological situations. The consortium is composed of chemical risk trainers and practitioners (INL), researchers in virtual reality and quality of experience in immersive environments (LIRIS-Origami), researchers in Human-Computer Interaction and Technology Enhanced Learning both from computer sciences (LIRIS-SICAL) and educational sciences (ECP), and finally, researchers in the fields of micro- and nano-technologies (INL), for the development of non intrusive physiological sensors and thermal/olfactive actuators.