Exploring Immersive Debriefing in Virtual Reality Training: A Comparative Study

Simulation and debriefing are two essential and inseparable phases of virtual reality training. With the widespread adoption of these training tools, it is crucial to define the best pedagogical approaches for trainers and learners to maximize their effectiveness. However, despite their educational benefits, virtual reality-specific debriefing methods remain underexplored in research. This article proposes an architecture and interface for an all-in-one immersive debriefing module that is adaptable to different types of training, including a complete system for recording, replaying, and redoing actions. A study with 36 participants compared this immersive debriefing system with traditional discussion-based and video-supported debriefing. Participants were divided into three groups to evaluate the effectiveness of each method. The results showed no significant differences between these debriefing methods across several criteria, such as satisfaction, motivation, or information retention. Immersive debriefing is as usable and retentive as traditional or video debriefing in this context. The next step will be to evaluate the redo system in other training courses involving more dynamic scenarios.